Impact of individual and combined inoculants on physical and microbial attributes of silage

The present investigation was conducted at the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairy science, College of Agriculture, Latur to know the physical and microbial qualities of silage with different inoculants by taking various treatment with different concentration of inoculants for preparation of silage. In this experiment, 6 treatments and 3 replications were laid out in a completely randomized design (CRD). All treatments with same oat-to-maize ratios were studied, with inoculation of Lactobacillus plantarum (I1) and Enterococcus faecium (I2). It was carried out to assess the effect of microbial inoculants on the physical and microbial properties of silage prepared from a 40% Oat and 60% Maize combination. Six treatments were formulated such as T1 (control), T2 (Lactobacillus plantarum 100%), T3 (Enterococcus faecium 100%), T4 (I1) 50% + (I2) 50%, T5 (I1) 25% + (I2) 75% and T6 (I1) 75% + (I2) 25%. Silage samples were fermented and evaluated after 45 and 90 days. The physical composition was assessed through sensory evaluation of silage. The Organoleptic test was carried out by including colour, odour and texture by penalties by using senses such as sight, odour, and touch. Microbial qualities results shows that bacterial population peaked at 45 days and decreased overtime, while the fungal population varied across treatments and time. The control (T1) showed fungal presence initially, which disappeared by day 90. Treatments T2, T3, and T5 showed reduced fungal growth over time, indicating partial control. T4 maintained high fungal levels at both intervals, suggesting limited effectiveness of the 50:50 inoculant mix.