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 4 Effect of inoculating exogenous microbiota on chemical and microbial compositions 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
Dry matter (g/kg DM)	STMZ	266^a	263^a	265^a	266^a	264^a	266^a	2.401	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
	MZMZ	262^Aab	249^Bb	245^Bb	237^BCb	234^CDb	227^Db
	MZIR	262^Aab	244^Bb	232^Cc	224^CDc	217^Dc	203^Ec
	MZOT	255^Ab	244^Bb	234^Cb	227^CDc	221^Dc	204^Ec
Water soluble carbohydrates (g/kg DM)	STMZ	161^a	163^a	162^a	163^a	161^a	160^a	1.325	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
	MZMZ	160^Aa	110^Bc	56.9^Cd	30.2^Dd	25.5^DEc	20.7^Eb
	MZIR	154^Ab	133^Bb	115^Cb	68.5^Db	36.2^Eb	21.3^Fb
	MZOT	153^Ab	137^Bb	75.3^Cc	55.9^Dc	33.8^Eb	23.1^Fb
Ammonia nitrogen (g/kg TN)	STMZ	15.5^Ec	22.0^Dd	36.2^Cc	47.3^Ba	47.6^Bc	54.0^Ac	1.281	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
	MZMZ	30.2^Db	48.4^Cb	52.5^Cb	61.0^Bb	67.6^ABb	68.0^Ab
	MZIR	46.6^Da	55.1^Ca	59.8^BCa	63.4^Bb	74.7^Aa	80.2^Aa
	MZOT	26.6^Fb	37.9^Ec	48.0^Db	58.3^Cb	67.0^Bb	74.8^Aa
Lactic acid bacteria (log₁₀ cfu/g FW)	STMZ	ND	ND	ND	ND	ND	ND	0.123	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
	MZMZ	10.0^Ba	11.3^Aa	10.4^Ba	9.65^Bb	8.51^Cb	6.09^Db
	MZIR	6.11^Eb	8.37^Cc	9.10^Bb	11.3^Aa	8.67^BCb	6.68^Db
	MZOT	5.58^Ec	9.68^Bb	9.23^Cb	10.2^Ab	9.49^BCa	7.82^Da
Enterobacteriaceae (log₁₀ cfu/g FW)	STMZ	ND	ND	ND	ND	ND	ND	0.124	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
	MZMZ	7.31^Ab	5.51^Bb	4.37^Cb	3.39^DEb	3.85^CDa	2.60^Eb
	MZIR	8.63^Aa	7.04^Ba	4.93^Ca	4.19^Da	3.43^Eb	2.71^Fb
	MZOT	7.63^Ab	6.46^Ba	4.25^Cb	4.15^Ca	3.98^CDa	3.64^Da

DM, dry matter; FW, fresh weight; TN, total nitrogen; cfu, colony-forming units; ND, not detected; 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)