Abstract

Thirty-six mini nylon-bags-silos, with about 4 kg corn forage were inoculated with 5% sour yoghurt (Yoghurt) and 5% sourdough (Dough) on a dry matter basis. Silos were kept for 70 days during which four silos of each group were evaluated for their apparent properties (smell, colour and texture) and chemical composition at days 10, 30 and 70 of the experiment. Neither Yoghurt nor Dough had any effect on physical properties of ensiled materials. Inoculation of whole-crop corn with sourdough and sour yoghurt significantly decreased pH, ash content and ammonia nitrogen, while dry matter determined using toloen distillation (DMT), Flieg point, crude protein (CP),  and total nitrogen increased (P<0.05).

Key words: Silage, sour yoghurt, sourdough, corn forage.

Abbreviation

DM, Dry matter; DMO, dry matter measured with oven drying; DMT,dry matter determined using toloen distillation; N-NH₃, ammonia nitrogen; CP, crude protein; TN, total nitrogen.