Time of Wrapping and the Use of Fermentation Enhancers on Forage Preservation Characteristics of Annual Ryegrass Baleage

Annual ryegrass baleage represents a high-quality stored forage resource for Southeastern beef producers. The objective of this project was to evaluate two baleage inoculants (Forage-Mate VS-3TM or Promote® HayDefenderTM, Cargill Animal Nutrition) and time of wrapping after baling on forage preservation characteristics of annual ryegrass baleage following a 90-d storage period. Thirty-five acres of annual ryegrass were harvested in mid-April 2017 at the EV Smith Research Center in Shorter, AL, and allowed to wilt for 24 hr prior to baling. Treatments were: 1) time of wrapping after baling [same day (S) or a two-day delay (D)], and 2) inoculant additives [control, HayDefender (H), or Forage-Mate VS-3 (VS); n = 5 bales per time × inoculant combination]. Baleage was weighed and cored for determination of nutritive value characteristics at 0-, 30- and 90-d post baling (mean 56.5% DM per bale). Data were analyzed using PROC MIXED (SAS 9.4) for a completely randomized design. Time of wrapping influenced forage DM losses, and final weight was less (P ≤ 0.05) for D than S bales (466 vs. 519 kg DM/bale, respectively). No differences were observed among inoculants in final bale weight (P = 0.4046). There was a trend (P = 0.1059) for less change in percentage DM loss for H and VS-treatments compared with the untreated control (3.7 and 3.6 vs. 5.3%, respectively). Forage DM concentrations of CP, NDF, ADF, and ADICP did not differ (P = 0.1915) among forage inoculants or time of wrapping. However, IVTD of VS-inoculated bales had less IVDMD (81.7) than C (83.9) and H (82.4) treatments (P = 0.0560). No differences were observed in bale pH among wrap time or inoculants (mean pH 4.1). There were no effects of time of wrapping or fermentation enhancers on lactic acid % (P = 0.7282), but acetic acid % was greater (P = 0.0003) for same day wrapped bales rather than two days later (1.04 and 0.87%, respectively). With increased storage time, L/A ratio increased (P < 0.0001) from 7.0 at 30-d to 13.6 at 90-d. Butryic acid % was increased (P = 0.0169) in VS-treatment (0.14%) compared with C- and H-treatments (0.04 and 0.05%, respectively). A trend for less total acid production was observed (P = 0.1031) for delayed wrapping (7.5%) compared with same day wrapping (8.0%). Results indicate that use of baleage fermentation enhancers may influence DM preservation characteristics, and changes may be more pronounced with longer storage periods.