Acetic Acid in Fresh Grass

EXPERIMENTS carried out in these laboratories 1 on the formation of volatile fatty acids in grass/water slurries showed that, whereas butyric and propionic acids were formed after the primary production of lactic acid had been stabilized, acetic acid was produced even before the lactic fermentation began. It is, of course, well known that acetic acid is formed during the silage fermentation, but it seemed surprising that it should be formed so speedily.