Preface

Chapter 7 **Maximizing Fiber Utilization of Silage in Ruminants 123**

Chapter 9 **Maize Silage as Substrate for Biogas Production 173**

Natthawud Dussadee, Yuwalee Unpaprom and Rameshprabu

Basim Refat and Peiqiang Yu

Chapter 8 **Grass Silage for Biogas Production 153**

**Section 4 Silage for Biogas Production 151**

Ramaraj

**VI** Contents

Miroslav Hutňan

Nowadays, we face a context of large environmental impacts from the livestock systems, and it has changed the perception about just increase of the production. In this new context, we should focus not only on production but also on efficiency of the whole system. The sus‐ tainable intensification of livestock systems is a new approach to achieve the efficient use of the resources by reducing feed cost, decreasing competition for food with humans, contribu‐ ting to decrease nutrient input from nonlocal sources, and contributing to the feed supply.

Forage conservation techniques have been used to intensify the animal production and to increase the efficiency of the whole livestock system as well. Ensiling is an old technique used to store food, mainly vegetable crops, to feed the herd when the forage supply from the pastures is not enough to maintain the productive performance of the ruminant animals. The main principle of silage is anaerobic environment and fermentation of the water-soluble carbohydrates in the fresh crop by the epiphytic lactic acid bacteria (LAB) with the produc‐ tion of lactic acid. However, different fermentation pathways may occur into the silo envi‐ ronment, depending on the availability of substrate, the predominant microbial populations, the dry matter (DM) content, and the buffering capacity of the crop at the ensiling. The main forage crops used for silage production are corn, sorghum, alfalfa, and grasses. Over the years, there have been many efforts on improving silage production and its utilization through studies about fermentation and the silage management to minimize the DM losses and to increase the efficiency of the process.

This book covers the main advances in silage production and utilization, with nine chapters written by internationally recognized experts from different regions of the world with dif‐ ferent environmental contexts but with one common objective: to report the most recent findings in their topic. Among four sections, the first one includes three chapters that show the advances in silage management with a deep survey of the use of bacterial inoculants in silages, the influence of the environment on the corn plants for silage production, and the new technologies on silage covering. The second section brings two chapters about the use of nonconventional crops for silage production in tropical areas, which have a significant impact in arid and semiarid regions and contribute to sustainably intensification of livestock systems in those regions. In the third section, two chapters discuss the nutritional aspects: the effects of fermentation products on intake and digestibility of silages and the strategies to maximize fiber utilization of silages in ruminants. The fourth section includes two chap‐ ters about the use of silage as a substrate for biogas production in Europe.

The authors of this book have summarized a large amount of research papers and results that provide a consistent explanation of the technical aspects of silage production and uti‐ lization. The intended audience are undergraduate and graduate students, scientists, profes‐ sors, farmers, consultants, and industrial representatives.

We express our appreciation to the authors that made the publication of this book possible. We also recognize that there is much more information that could be discussed, but it is just an introduction of recent advances and new discussions about silage production and its uti‐ lization. As editors, we hope that this book can contribute with the knowledge construction and dissemination, as well as the incentivization for the development of more new technolo‐ gies that could contribute to the efficiency of the livestock systems.

> **Thiago da Silva** Federal University of Vicosa, Brasil

**Silage Management**

**Section 1**

**Edson Mauro Santos** Federal University of Paraiba, Brasil
