53-Degree Temperature Swing in Inoculated Silage Experiment
While walking around the World Dairy Expo, there are plenty of giveaways and prizes to enter for at the various exhibitor booths. The free stuff tends to bring in plenty of traffic to the booths, but something that may not instantly catch person’s eye is an experiment on display at the DuPont Pioneer booth that shows the benefit of inoculating silage.
Two styrofoam coolers filled with silage that was harvested approximately two-weeks ago are in the booth with temperature monitors. One sample has not been inoculated while the other was treated with Rapid React during harvest.
The booth experiment had a temperature difference of 30 °F after 48-hours removed from the separate silo bunkers. Rapid React treat silage held a temperature of 73°F, compared to 103°F for the non-treated silage. A time-lapse video showed an even larger difference, with a 53°F swing at 108-hours after removal from the silo.
“What the Rapid React does is these buchneri inhibit the growth of yeast,” says Bill Mahanna, dairy nutritionist with Dupont Pioneer.
The yeast causes a chain of events leading to the heating of silage. Using an inoculate with buchneri slows down that growth.
Rapid React 11C-33 features a strain of buchneri that can be fed much quicker than most inoculates, even as early as 7 days after harvest.
Besides not losing as much nutrients to overheating, cows won’t refuse as much feed due to less heating at the bunkline.
Below is a video of the experiment comparing inoculated and non-inoculated silage:
