Effect of Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus megaterium on productivity and nutrition of green mass and silage quality of pea-oat grass mixture

The effect of biological preparations based on bacteria of the genus Bacillus on productivity and nutritive value of pea and oat mixture was studied. In the course of the experiment, the effect of the preparations containing live strains of microorganisms Bacillus subtilis and B. megaterium was investigated. The studies were conducted in the Vologda region in 2020 and 2023. The silage experiment was carried out under laboratory conditions. The results showed that the use of the above-mentioned preparations resulted in a slight increase in the productivity of pea-oat mixture in microplot field experiments of 2020 and 2023. The maximum difference was observed in 2023 using the preparation containing B. subtilis. Application of the biological preparations under consideration leads to improvement of the nutritive value of pea-oat mixture green mass up to 12% depending on the specific indicator. Analysis of the nutritive value of the obtained silage from green mass confirms the positive effect of biopreparations on the content of feed units in dry matter (increase by 4–20%) and exchangeable energy (increase by 3–14%). Silage produced from the grass mixture of experimental variants in the laboratory experiment was characterized by lower values of pH and butyric acid content, while an increase in lactic acid concentration was noted. Higher productivity and nutritive value of green mass were achieved in the experiments with the use of preparation with B. subtilis, while the best results in terms of physical and chemical parameters and nutritive value of harvested forage were observed in the variant with treatment with the preparation based on B. megaterium. According to the standard GOST R 55986-2014, the quality of silage, the grass mass of which was exposed to the action of bacteria of the genus Bacillus, was generally superior to the control in terms of forage grade. 

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