Nutritive value, fermentation characteristics, and in situ disappearance kinetics of sorghum silage treated with inoculants.

Fibrolytic enzymes and microbial inoculants have the potential to improve the value of sorghum feedstuff and feedstock. An experiment was conducted to determine nutritive value, ensiling characteristics, and in situ disappearance kinetics of 4 sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) silage varieties: Dairy Master BMR (DBMR; brown midrib; Richardson Seed, Vega, TX), PS 747 (PS; photoperiod sensitive; Pogue Seed, Kenedy, TX), Silo 700D (S700D; conventional forage type; Richardson Seed), and MMR 381/73 (MMR; conventional forage type; Richardson Seed) pretreated with fibrolytic enzyme (xylanase plus cellulase, XC; 50:50 mixture of Cellulase Plus and Xylanase Plus; Dyadic, Juniper, FL) or microbial [Promote ASB (Lactobacillus buchneri and Lactobacillus plantarum); Cargill Animal Nutrition, Indianapolis, IN; PRO] inoculants. The greatest yield was for cultivar PS and the least for MMR. Neutral detergent fiber (NDF) concentration was least for XC-treated silage, and acid detergent fiber (ADF) concentration was least for XC- and PRO-treated silage. When silage was treated with XC, concentrations of NDF concentrations decreased, on average, 4.81% across all cultivars and ADF concentrations decreased, on average, 3.23% in all cultivars except MMR. Inoculant PRO reduced the NDF concentration of DBMR by 6.47%. The ADF concentrations of DBMR and PS treated with PRO were decreased by 3.25%. Treating sorghum silage with XC or PRO reduced the NDF and ADF fractions, which increased cell wall degradability. In vitro true digestibility was greatest for PRO-treated DBMR, whereas acid detergent lignin was least for PRO-treated DBMR. Aerobic stability was not improved by PRO; however, aerobic stability of XC-treated MMR was 63 h greater than that of the control. Acetate concentrations were greatest for XC-treated MMR, which explains the 63-h improvement in aerobic stability due to the inhibition of fungi. However, inoculant PRO did not improve yeast and mold counts or aerobic stability of sorghum silage compared with the control, which may be due to the lesser acetate concentrations, especially of PRO-treated S700D silage. Generally, in situ disappearance kinetics were improved with the application of XC and PRO, and XC had the greatest effect on silage with greater NDF and ADF concentrations.