Nutrition composition and silage fermentation quality of Desmodium intortum

Desmodium intortum is an excellent perennial legume grass in tropics. The nutrition composition and chemical characteristics of Desmodium intortum were tested, and the effect of additives of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and glucose (G) to raw materials on the quality of silage fermentation were also studied in the present experiment. The ensiling experiment was designed into 6 treatments, they were control (no additives), additives of LAB, 1% G, 2% G, LAB + 1% G and LAB + 2% G, respectively. The results showed that Desmodium intortum had high crude protein content (20.75%) and water soluble carbohydrate content (7.19%). After 60 days of ensiling, the fermentation quality of the control silage was poor, with pH over 4.7. The treatment of inoculating with LAB alone reduced pH and ammonia nitrogen content of silage significantly, and increased the lactic acid content (P < 0.05), while adding glucose along with two concentrations did not reduce pH (P > 0.05), but decreased the ammonia nitrogen content significantly (P < 0.05) compared to the control. The silages added with the mixtures of LAB and glucose (LAB + 1% G and LAB + 2% G) were of pH lower than 4.1, and lactic acid content were higher than 6.0%, which were significantly better than the other treatments (P < 0.05). And there was no significant differences between the two treatments (P > 0.05). Thus, adding LAB and 1% G to Desmodium intortum could effectively improve the fermentation quality of the silage.