**Silage Management**

lization. The intended audience are undergraduate and graduate students, scientists, profes‐

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‐

**Thiago da Silva**

**Edson Mauro Santos**

Brasil

Brasil

Federal University of Vicosa,

Federal University of Paraiba,

sors, farmers, consultants, and industrial representatives.

VIII Preface

gies that could contribute to the efficiency of the livestock systems.

**Chapter 1**

**Provisional chapter**

**Survey About the Use of Bacterial Inoculants in Brazil:**

Our objective was to report the effect of bacterial inoculants on silage quality and animal responses in Brazil. A survey of bacterial inoculants utilization in Brazil was made based on a total of 178 published articles assessing a widely varied crops (alfalfa, cabbage, cassava, corn, grass, high-moisture corn (HMC), high-moisture sorghum, millet, oat, orange bagasse, peanut forage, sorghum, soybean, stylosantes Campo Grande, sugarcane, and sunflower). Sugarcane and grass silages comprised 58.1% of the total crops investigated. Homolactic inoculation reduced dry matter (DM) losses in alfalfa silages, but not in corn, grass, HMC, and sorghum silages. Heterolactic inoculation enhanced the aerobic stability of corn and HMC silages. The use of heterofermentative lactic acid-bacteria (LAB) was more effective to improve fermentation of sugarcane silages compared to homofermentative LAB. Inoculation impaired the DM intake in cattle fed corn, grass, and sugarcane silages, but DM intake increased in sheep due to inoculation. In some cases, silage digestibility was affected by inoculation. Positive responses to inoculation occurred most often when the compatibility between the bacterial inoculant and crop was better understood (e.g., homolactic inoculation for grass silage and heterolactic inoculation for sugarcane silage). The performance of animals consuming inoculated silages has been investigated in Brazil only a few times, but the data suggest a greater impact of bacterial inoculants on DM intake and weight gain in cattle and sheep than that indicated in

**Keywords:** aerobic stability, digestibility, fermentation, growth performance, lactic

and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution,

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

**Survey About the Use of Bacterial Inoculants in Brazil:**

**Effects on Silage Quality and Animal Performance**

**Effects on Silage Quality and Animal Performance**

Carlos H.S. Rabelo, Lucas J. Mari and Ricardo A. Reis

Carlos H.S. Rabelo, Lucas J. Mari and Ricardo A. Reis

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/64472

temperate conditions.

acid bacteria

**Abstract**
