Effects of Ratios of Homo-/Hetero-lactic Acid Bacteria on Silage Quality of Whole Plant Corn

Purpose To screen out the types and amount of lactic acid bacteria suitable for whole plant corn silage, promoting the industrial development of corn silage.

Methods Using whole plant corn at wax maturity as raw material, the treatments of natural fermentation (CK), addition of Lactobacillus plantarum (Z), addition of L. buchneri (B), and addition of L. plantarum to L. buchneri in mass ratios of 1∶1 (Z₁B₁), 5∶1 (Z₅B₁), and 1∶5 (Z₁B₅) were set up to carry out the study of the effect of the ratios of homo/hetero types of Lactobacillus on the microbial counts, fermentation quality and aerobic stability.

Results Compared with CK, the addition of L. buchneri and L. plantarum alone or in mixture could increase the number of lactic acid bacteria in silage corn, reduce its pH value, increase the content of organic acid, reduce the number of yeast, effectively inhibit the breeding of aerobic bacteria, and improve the aerobic stability of whole plant corn silage. The evaluation result of fuzzy mathematics membership function method showed that the quality order of different treatments of silage corn was: B= Z₁B₅>Z>Z₅B₁>CK>Z₁B₁.

Conclusion The addition of L. buchneri or L. plantarum alone as well as L. plantarum and L. buchneri mixed at a mass ratio of 1∶5 can effectively improve the quality of silage corn.