Studies on Silage-Making : XVI. The Effect of Wilting and Chopping of Forage on the Quality of Silage

Two experiments were carried out to investigate the relationship between the dry matter level or physical form of forage and the quality of silage. One experiment was carried out to find the effect of the dry matter content of forage on the quality of resultant silage. Namely, green oats, of which dry matter was adjusted to five levels (15％, 24％, 33％, 410％ and 61％) by means of wilting or adding of water, were stored in the experimental silos, respectively. Each silo was opened after 158 days and the fermentative quality and the dry matter loss of silages produced were estimated. And the other experiment was carried out to confirm the relationship between the form of forage and the quality of silage. In this experiment, Italian ryegrass, of which a part was chopped at the length of 1 cm, 2 cm, 3 cm, 5 cm and 10cm and the rest. was lacerated and bruised after chopped at 2cm length, were stored in laboratory miniature-sealed silos, respectively, and then each silo was sealed completely. Of resulant silage, fermentative quality and carotene content were estimated. The results obtained are summarized as follows : 1) The score by Flieg's appraisal method of the silages was 15 in the silage of 15％ dry matter, 58 in the silage of 24％ dry matter, 70 in the silage of 33％ dry matter and 95 in both silages of 41％ and 61％ dry matter. And a positive significant correlation, r = +0.880 (p