An evaluation of round bale silage

摘要

Round bale silage made of wilted Italian ryegrass (60% moisture) was compared with a conventional high moisture (90%) silage ensiled in a trench silo for fermentation quality, nutritive value, loss during silage making, production cost and animal performance. The fermentation quality of the bale silage was higher than that of the conventional silage. Content of neutral detergent fiber and in vitro digestibility by rumen microbes were not greatly different between the two silages. The conventional silage had a large dry matter loss (29%) during silage making compared with the bale silage (8%). In total production cost, the bale silage resulted in approximately 23yen/DM less than the conventional silage. Although dry matter intake of the bale silage by heifers was higher than that of conventional silage, rate of live weight gain and feed efficiency were similar for the two silages.