Preserve your grass silage protein content

Feb 25, 2014

At a time when feed represents 40-60% of milk production costs, every gram of nutrient counts!

Nutritionists reckon that silage protein content is, with energy value, one of the most important nutrients for livestock. It can represent a limiting factor for animal performance. If ensiling is a common method for grass forage preservation, it can unfortunately lead to proteins degradation into Ammonia and Soluble Nitrogen. These products have no feeding value and, moreover, can be detrimental to the animal and lead to a decrease in performance.

Protein degradation in silage is due either to the action of enzymes which are released from the plant cells at harvest, or to proteolytic microorganisms, such as clostridia or enterobacteria, present on the plant. Hence, both of these have to be inhibited as quickly as possible following harvest to keep proteolysis to a minimum. It is clear that certain good silage practices can help ensure an optimal fermentation pattern and thus help lower these protein losses. Among them, the use of an adapted silage inoculant proven to improve the acidification process and increase aerobic stability at feed–out has shown effective in reducing protein losses in grass and legumes silages (LALSIl DRY, LALSIL CL, LALSIL PS, see our products section).