ABSTRACT - The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of a commercial bacterial inoculant containing Lactobacillus plantarum, Streptococcus faecium and Pediococcus acidactili on the quality and dry matter (DM) loss of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) during the ensilage process. The treatments were constituted of two types dual propose sorghum silage harvested at the dough stage: without (control) and with inoculant; three positions in each silo (front, middle and back regions) corresponding to three periods of collection (52, 65 and 71 days of fermentation) and three replicates in side each position. Each replicate was constituted of a fine meshed nylon bag with 4 kg of forage containing 1 kg of forage approximately. The inoculated silage had lower ash (mineral matter) percentage, ammonia nitrogen and lactic acid, higher content of neutral detergent fiber and acid detergent fiber. The silage with inoculant did not differ from the control in relation to the pH, crude protein, gross energy and percentage of DM loss.
bacterial inoculant; dry matter loss; quality of silage; sorghum
