The effects of buffered propionic acid-based additives alone or combined with microbial inoculation on the fermentation of high moisture corn and whole-crop barley.

Abstract

Buffered propionic acid-based additives (BP) alone or in combination with a microbial inoculant containing lactic acid bacteria (MI) were mixed with ground, high moisture corn or whole-crop barley and ensiled in triplicate laboratory silos to investigate their effects on silage fermentation and aerobic stability. The inoculant and chemicals were applied separately for treatments that included both additives. The addition of MI alone had no effect on DM recovery, fermentation end products, or aerobic stability of high moisture corn. However, treatments with 0.1 and 0.2% BP (alone and the combination) had more than 10- and 100-fold fewer yeasts, respectively, and they also had greater concentrations of propionic acid than did untreated corn. Corn treated with only 0.1 (161 h) and 0.2% (218 h) BP tended to be more stable when exposed to air than untreated corn (122 h). Treatment with MI + 0.2% BP markedly improved the aerobic stability (>400 h) of high moisture corn. With whole-crop barley, the addition of MI alone, BP alone, and combinations of MI and BP prevented the production of butyric acid that was found in untreated silage (0.48%). All barley silages that had MI in their treatments underwent a more efficient fermentation than treatments without MI, as evident by a greater ratio of lactic:acetic acid and more DM recovery than in untreated silage. Increasing levels (0.1 to 0.2%) of BP added together with MI improved the aerobic stability of barley (190 and 429 h) over the addition of MI alone (50 h). These data show that buffered propionic acid-based products are compatible with microbial inoculants and, in some circumstances when used together, they can improve the fermentation and aerobic stability of silages.