Alfalfa silage with lactic acid bacteria preparations
Alfalfa is considered the ideal raw material for haylage, and it is believed that the preservation of feed is provided by «physiological dryness», which causes the moisture in the plants to be inaccessible to the unwanted microflora. According to this view, the food is preserved irrespective of the presence of sugar and protein in it, and, hence, from the degree of acidification. It is believed that in proportion to the increase in protein and pectin content in plants, the amount of water inaccessible to microbes also increases. However, it has been established that water bound by protein and pectin is the least bound water. Consequently, alfalfa, rich in protein and pectin, contains a lot of loosely bound water, even if it is dried to a solids content of ≥45 %. Against the background of an acute shortage of sugar and high buffer capacity, it is the reason for obtaining food unstable during storage. Our data showed that this defect can be corrected by accelerating the acidification of the dried substance dried to the specified dry matter content to a limit that excludes the development of butyric bacteria. It is achieved through the introduction of drugs based on osmotolerant strains of lactic acid bacteria. At the same time, the high buffering of the dried alfalfa, providing slower acidification in comparison with ensilage of the dried grasses, does not allow the possibility of its ensilage in poorly dried (<40 % dry matter) form. In this case, strong dehydration of alfalfa serves as an intermediate conservation factor, which, under conditions of slow fermentation, prevents the development of butyric acid bacteria in the first stage of conservation, as well as the decomposition of amino acids to ammonia under the influence of proteolytic enzymes of plants.