The contribution of epiphytic microbiota in oat and Italian ryegrass to silage fermentation products and bacterial community structure of whole-crop maize

Chemical and Biological Technologies in Agriculture

Table 3 Effect of inoculating exogenous microbiota on pH value, organic acid and ethanol contents in whole-crop maize silage

Items	Treatments	Ensiling days (d)						SEM	P value
Items	Treatments	1	3	7	15	30	60	SEM	T	D	T × D
pH value	STMZ	5.60^a	5.54^a	5.49^a	5.50^a	5.45^a	5.46^a	0.026	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
	MZMZ	4.18^Ac	3.51^BCd	3.57^Bc	3.50^BCc	3.41^Cc	3.44^BCc
	MZIR	5.26^Ab	3.88^Bc	3.62^Cc	3.65^Cbc	3.57^Cb	3.64^Cb
	MZOT	4.19^Ac	4.09^ABb	3.95^ABb	3.69^Bb	3.53^BCbc	3.27^Cd
Lactic acid (g/kg DM)	STMZ	0.74^b	0.82^d	0.64^d	0.68^d	0.76^d	0.76^d	1.206	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
	MZMZ	24.8^Da	62.6^Ca	74.4^Ba	81.1^ABa	84.9^Aa	86.9^Aa
	MZIR	1.55^Eb	36.6^Db	63.4^Cb	70.9^ABb	68.7^Bb	74.4^Ab
	MZOT	23.1^Ea	28.6^Ec	37.2^Dc	45.3^Cc	61.4^Bc	66.9^Ac
Acetic acid (g/kg DM)	STMZ	0.61^CDd	0.56^Dc	0.75^BCc	0.93^Ac	0.93^Ad	0.81^ABd	0.526	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
	MZMZ	3.42^Cb	6.44^BCa	7.57^BCb	8.34^Bb	11.5^Ab	10.4^ABb
	MZIR	2.51^Fc	6.30^Ea	8.39^Da	12.2^Ca	15.4^Ba	17.0^Aa
	MZOT	4.39^Ea	5.69^Db	7.34^Cb	8.55^Bb	9.58^Ac	9.78^Ac
Lactic acid/Acetic acid	STMZ	1.30^ABc	1.47^Ad	0.85^ABd	0.74^Bc	0.82^Bd	0.92^ABd	0.129	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
	MZMZ	7.24^Ca	9.70^Aa	9.84^Aa	9.72^Aa	7.40^Ca	8.33^Ba
	MZIR	0.63^Dc	5.81^Bb	7.58^Ab	5.81^Bb	4.47^Cc	4.37^Cc
	MZOT	5.28^Bb	5.03^Bc	5.08^Bc	5.30^Bb	6.41^Ab	6.84^Ab
Butyric acid (g/kg DM)	STMZ	1.01^a	1.01^a	1.01^a	1.00^a	1.03^a	1.03^a	0.225	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
	MZMZ	1.00^a	0.89^a	0.81^b	0.87^b	1.03^a	1.04^a
	MZIR	0.40^b	0.54^b	0.75^b	0.68^bc	0.64^b	0.66^b
	MZOT	0.46^b	0.48^b	0.45^c	0.46^c	0.44^b	0.44^b
Ethanol (g/kg DM)	STMZ	4.80^b	4.63^b	4.38^b	4.89^bc	4.83^c	4.61^c	1.267	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
	MZMZ	2.75^c	2.42^c	2.80^b	2.87^c	2.84^c	2.96^c
	MZIR	2.90^Ec	5.24^Eab	17.2^Da	24.8^Ca	35.4^Ba	46.1^Aa
	MZOT	5.49^Da	5.42^Da	5.62^Db	7.81^Cb	16.8^Bb	37.0^Ab

DM, dry matter; d, day; STMZ, sterile maize; MZMZ, sterile maize inoculated by epiphytic microbiota from maize; MZIR, sterile maize inoculated by epiphytic microbiota from Italian ryegrass; MZOT, sterile maize inoculated by epiphytic microbiota from oat; SEM, standard error of means; T, microbiota; D, ensiling days; T × D, the interaction between microbiota and ensiling days
Means with different letters in the same row (^A−F) or column (^a−d) differ (P < 0.05)