INFLUENCE OF WILTING DURATION ON MICROBIAL PROFILE OF GRASS-LEGUME SILAGE IN UMUDIKE, SOUTHEAST, NIGE

Abstract

Silage production has been considered to be best suited forage conservation technique in the rainforest zone of Nigeria due to high relative humidity and unpredictable sunlight which made it challenging to cure a good quality hay in such environment. During late rainy period legumes usually available in abundant and it could be utilized to improve quality of predominant grass species that are generally characterized with declined nutritive quality when there is moisture stress. Therefore, this experiment was conducted to evaluate microbial profile of grass-legume silage mixtures as affected by
wilting periods. Different proportions of grass-legume silages mixtures were wilted for 6 and 12 hours namely: wilting period at two levels (6 and 12 hours after chopping) and forage composition in five different constituents (sole Panicum maximum (Guinea grass), sole Pennisetum purpureum (Elephant grass), Panicum maximum-Centrosema molle (Panicum*Centro) mixture, Pennisetum purpureumCentrosema molle (Pennisetum*Centro) mixture and sole Centrosema molle (Centro). The experiment was a factorial arrangement laid out in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). The microbial contents of silage were determined at 12 weeks after commencement of ensiling. The result of the study revealed that under anaerobic condition, the LABs suspected isolates were 14 (37.83 %) out of 37 total bacteria which is lower than the LABs suspected isolates 21 (42 %) out of 50 total bacteria under aerobic condition. That of Clostridium species were observed to be lower than LABs under both conditions. But a similar trend to that LABs suspected isolates was maintained when compared along the anaerobic and aerobic condition. The study showed that wilting period favoured production of LABs than clostridium species, though there was in slight increase in their population under aerobic condition.