Effects of bacterial inoculation of unwilted and wilted grass silages. 2. Intake, performance and eating behaviour by dairy cattle

Four grass silages, namely unwilted and wilted silages each with and without bacterial inoculation, were prepared on each of eight harvesting occasions during the 1994 growing season (Yan et al. 1998). The four silages, made at each harvest, were offered ad libitum to 48 lactating dairy cows in a 2 (control v. additive)×2 (unwilted v. wilted)×8 (harvest (period)) change-over design experiment with 3-week experimental periods. The animals also received 6·9 kg dry matter (DM) of a concentrate supplement daily during the first period and then the allowance of the supplement was reduced by 0·43 kg DM at the start of each subsequent period. The supplement was based on barley, molasses and soyabean meal. The data presented are the mean results obtained across the eight harvests. No significant interactions were found between inoculation and wilting for silage intake, performance and silage eating behaviour. Inoculation significantly increased milk yield (2·4%, P