TECHNICAL LIGNINS POTENTIAL TO PREVENT SPOILAGE LOSSES DURING CONSERVED FORAGE STORAGE AND FEEDING

Our long-term goal is to improve the understanding and awareness of conserved forage spoilage and to develop novel technologies that can prevent it. The overall objective of this proposal is to optimize lignosulfonates as additives that can improve hay and silage nutritive value and production efficiency by preventing spoilage. Based on recent findings and our preliminary data on the antimicrobial and antiproteolytic activity of lignosulfonates, our central hypothesis is that sodium lignosulfonate can reduce the DM losses and preserve the nutritive value of high moisture hay and reduce proteolysis losses in silages.We propose 4 supporting objectives to evaluate this central hypothesis:Optimize selected lignosulfonates antimicrobial effects using hay as the substrate in in vitro aerobic incubations (Hay A).Compare an optimized lignosulfonate and propionic acid on high moisture hay nutritional composition, in vitro gas production, DM losses, and microbial community structure (Hay B).Determine an optimal application rate for selected lignosulfonates as preservatives of high moisture legume silage using laboratory-scale silos (Silage A).Analyze the effects of an optimized lignosulfonate on legume silage nutritional composition, in vitro gas production, fermentation, aerobic stability, effluent production, and microbial community structure across a moisture gradient (Silage B).