**6. Conclusions**

352 Lactic Acid Bacteria – R & D for Food, Health and Livestock Purposes

differ (P>0.05), CV = coefficient of variation.

silage.

for better fermentation. The microbial inoculant 'Biosilo' does not benefit the elephant grass

Treatment IVDMD (%DM) DML (%) Control (without aditive) 41.62abcde 6.80b Urea 0.5 % 34.47abcde 11.00a Cotton fiber (10%) 27.62de 10.50a Elephant grass hay (10%) 34.12abcde 9.80b Guandu hay(10%) 26.36e 7.00b Drying for 6 hours 41.71abcde 6.70b Sugar waste (2%) 42.89abcd 6.85b Corn Meal (2%) 41.36abcde 6.70b Corn Meal (4%) 45.68abc 7.20b Corn Meal (6%) 41.81abcde 5.70b Corn Meal (2%) /Urea (0.5%) 50.30ab 6.60b Corn Meal (4%)/ Urea (0.5%) 51.31a 7.10b Corn Meal (6%) /Urea (0.5%) 41.82abcde 7.10b Dried Molasses (1%) 40.03abcde 6.80b Dried Molasses (2%) 46.84abc 6.65b Dried Molasses (3%) 45.25abc 6.80b Dried Molasses (1%) Urea (0.5%) 43.73abc 6.90b Dried Molasses (2%) Urea (0.5%) 47.15bc 7.10b Dried Molasses (3%) Urea (0.5%) 49.65ab 6.85b Biosilo inoculant 32.52de 7.00b CV (%) 13.70 18.5 **Table 10.** *In vitro* dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) and dry matter losses (DML) of elephant grass, Napier, ensiled with different additives (Andrade and Melotti, 2004). Equal means in column do not

In more recent studies, evaluating the effect of four additives in sugar cane silage (sugarcane with 1.5% of urea; 0.5% of urea + 4% of corn; 0.5% of urea + 4% of dried cassava, 1.5% of starea and sugar cane control), Lopes & Evangelista (2010) concluded that the additive

Ávila et al. (2006), using combinations of different additives types (citrus pulp, wheat bran, and corn meal) with various doses (3, 6, 9 and 12%), found that Tanzania grass has low soluble carbohydrates contents and citrus pulp was the additive which contributed to increase the forage carbohydrate concentration and to reduce the buffering capacity. It provides an increase in the relation soluble carbohydrate x buffering capacity and better

Besides the additives, some management practices from the harvest time to the silo sealing can influence the LAB development. When the grass is chopped at harvest time, the LAB population tends to increase due to reactivation of dormant and non-culturable cells. Thus,

0.5% urea + 4% corn, provides better results to the sugar cane silage.

conditions for the fermentation process, resulting in better quality silages.

The increase in lactic acid fermentation is a big challenge for tropical grass silages confection, determining the success of this technology. It is really important to know the species of lactic acid bacteria prevalent in tropical grasses as well as their metabolism in order to obtain maximum use with its utilization.

The use of lactic acid bacteria as microbial inoculants in tropical grasses silage still shows some inconsistency in the results obtained in research works. More research that evaluates their effects on the fermentation parameters, dry matter losses and mainly on the quality, regarding nutrient intake and animal performance is required.

However, tropical grass silages represent a promising technology for livestock in areas threatened by periodic droughts. Furthermore, in tropical countries like Brazil, this practice has been quite taken by the producers.

Lactic Acid Bacteria in Tropical Grass Silages 355

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