Effects of Lactobacillus buchneri as a silage inoculant and as a probiotic on feed intake, apparent digestibility and ruminal fermentation and microbiology in wethers fed low‐dry‐matter whole‐crop maize silage

Lactobacillus buchneri was investigated as a silage inoculant and as a probiotic on feed intake, apparent digestibility, and ruminal fermentation and microbiology in wethers fed low-dry-matter (DM) whole-crop maize silage. Maize forage (279g/kg DM) was ensiled without inoculant (untreated) and with L.buchneri CNCM I-4323 at 1x10(5)cfu/g fresh forage (inoculated). Six cannulated wethers were arranged in a double 3x3 Latin square and assigned to one of three diets: (i) untreated maize silage (untreated), (ii) inoculated maize silage (inoculated), and (iii) untreated maize silage with a daily dose of L.buchneri (1x10(7)cfu/g supplied silage) injected directly into the rumen (LB-probiotic). Wethers fed the inoculated diet had a higher (p=.050) DM intake (1.30% body weight [BW]) than wethers fed untreated and LB-probiotic diets (1.17% and 1.18% BW respectively). The relative proportion of Ruminococcus flavefaciens (proportion of total estimated rumen bacterial 16S rDNA) in the rumen of wethers fed inoculated and LB-probiotic diets (both 0.42%) tended (p=.098) to be lower than in the untreated diet (0.83%). Lactobacillus buchneri as a silage inoculant or as a probiotic had little effect on the variables measured in wethers.