Effects of feeding silage inoculated with Lactococcus lactis and Lentilactobacillus buchneri on performance and nutrient utilization in transition dairy cows — Supplemental material

We fed inoculated silage-based TMR to transition cows to evaluate performance and nutrient utilization. Our hypothesis was that using a mixed inoculant containing L. lactis and L. buchneri would reduce pH more rapidly during the ensiling phase and improve the aerobic stability of corn silage ensiled under laboratory conditions. In addition, feeding a TMR containing inoculated corn and ryegrass silage will increase prepartum and postpartum DMI and improve the performance of lactating dairy cows during early lactation. This supplemental material includes nutritive value, fermentation characteristics, and fiber degradability of corn and ryegrass silage ensiled for 395 and 98 d in ag-bags. Additionally, we performed a side experiment utilizing fresh TMR to measure the aerobic stability. We used prepartum and postpartum TMRs.