Enzymes as silage additive. Effect on fermentation quality, digestibility in sheep, degradability in sacco and performance in growing cattle

Fungal glucose oxidase and cellulase were used as silage additives in laboratory (25 l), pilot (3 m3) and farm scale (250 t) silos. In 3 m3 scale silos, pH and the concentration of acetic acid were lower and the concentrations of lactic acid and sugars were higher in the enzyme treated than in untreated silage. The concentration of butyric acid was equal to or lower than in formic acid treated silage in all experiments. Cell wall constituents were degraded in the silo by cellulase and thus more energy was available for lactic acid bacteria. With increasing levels of cellulase application, the disappearance of organic matter (OM) from nylon bags incubated for 1 to 12 h in the rumen of a dairy cow increased significantly (