THE EFFECTS OF INOCULATION OF WHOLE CROP MAIZE SILAGES ON PERFORMANCE OF BEEF CATTLE

The effect of inoculated with BioStabil Mays whole crop maize silage on the feed intake and performance by beef cattle has been studied. Forty beef cattle were fed with inoculated and ordinary made maize silages and their productivity response was evaluated over a 100-days feeding period. Animals were assigned to two treatments (inoculated silage – B and ordinary made silage – C) in a randomized-block design experiment. Inoculant BioStabil Mays treatment increased the fermentation rate of whole crop maize silage, resulting in a significant (P < 0.01) pH drop, a significant (P < 0.05) increase of total organic acids concentration and a significant decrease (P < 0.01) of the concentrations of butyric acid, ethanol and ammonia-N compared with the control silage. For the BioStabil Mays treated silage, dry matter losses decreased by 3.0 percentage units (P < 0.01). The Biomin BioStabil Mays silage DM intake was higher by 6.14% and over the total experimental period the weight gain of animals fed the inoculated silage increased by 8.0% (P < 0.01) and the feed conversion rate was improved by 3.4%.