Bale Location Effects on Nutritive Value and Fermentation Characteristics of Annual Ryegrass Bale Stored in In-line Wrapping Silage

In southeastern regions of the US, herbage systems are primarily based on grazing or hay feeding with low nutritive value warm-season perennial grasses. Nutritious herbage such as annual ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) may be more suitable for preserving as baleage for winter feeding even with more intensive production inputs. Emerging in-line wrapped baleage storage systems featuring rapid wrapping and low polyethylene film requirements need to be tested for consistency of storing nutritive value of a range of annual ryegrass herbage. A ryegrass storage trial was conducted with 24-h wilted ‘Marshall’ annual ryegrass harvested at booting, heading and anthesis stages using three replicated in-line wrapped tubes containing ten round bales per tube. After a six-month storage period, nutritive value changes and fermentation end products differed significantly by harvest stage but not by bale location. Although wilted annual ryegrass exhibited a restricted fermentation across harvest stages characterized by high pH and low fermentation end product concentrations, butyric acid concentrations were less than 1 g/kg dry matter, and lactic acid was the major organic acid in the bales. Mold coverage and bale aroma did not differ substantially with harvest stage or bale location. Booting and heading stage-harvested ryegrass baleage were superior in nutritive value to anthesis stage-harvested herbage. Based on the investigated nutritive value and fermentation characteristics, individual bale location within in-line tubes did not significantly affect preservation quality of ryegrass round bale silages.