Effect of re-ensiling on the quality of sorghum silage

Abstract

The commercialization of silage in many countries, including Brazil, has increased in recent years. Re-ensiling of previously ensiled forage occurs when silage is relocated from one farm to another, where it will be compacted and sealed again. During this process, silage is exposed to oxygen before being ensiled, which may affect its quality. We exposed sorghum silage to air during the anaerobic storage phase to simulate the transportation of silages between farms. Experimental treatments included silage exposed to air for 0 or 12 h, with or without the use of an inoculant containing a mixture of Lactobacillus plantarum and the propionic bacteria Propionibacterium acidipropionici (1 × 10 6 cfu/g of forage; Biomax corn, Lallemand, Saint-Simon, France), totaling 4 treatments: conventional silage, conventional silage with inoculant use, re-ensilage after exposure to air, and re-ensilage after exposure to air with use of an inoculant. The sorghum was stored in experimental silos containing about 9.0 kg of fresh forage per replicate. Treatments were tested in a factorial 2 × 2 design with 5 replicates each. Chemical composition, in vitro dry matter digestibility, fermentative characteristics, losses (due to gas, effluents, and total dry matter), microorganism counts, and aerobic stability of sorghum silage were evaluated. Dry matter content of sorghum before ensiling was 273.12 g/kg. The 12-h re-ensiling process increased the effluent loss of the silage when compared with conventional silage (456.42 vs. 201.19 g/kg of FM, respectively). In addition, re-ensiled silages presented lower concentrations of lactic acid and higher concentrations of propionic acid than the silages that had not been opened during storage. The aerobic stability of silage was not affected by the re-ensiling process and the use of inoculant. The use of inoculant increased the pH and loss of dry matter of the silages (4.23 vs. 3.98 and 14.05 vs. 7.82%, respectively) and therefore did not provide any benefits in this study.