. 2023 Mar 23;13:4806. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-31964-3

Table 7.

Effect of wilting rate (target 22.5% or 37.5% DM) and silage additive (without or with) on silage in vitro rumen fermentation characteristics (total volatile fatty acids (VFA) and acids as molar proportion of total VFA), in vitro total gas and CH₄ production, and coefficient of degradation (n = 15).

	22.5% DM		37.5%DM		SEM	P value
	Without	With	Without	With	SEM	Cut	DM	Cut × DM	Add	Cut × Add	DM × Add	Cut × DM × Add
Total VFA, mmol/L	139	138	136	138	1.3	< 0.001	0.235	0.085	0.604	0.608	0.109	0.514
Molar Proportions
Acetate, mmol/mmol	0.611	0.625	0.626	0.630	0.00	< 0.001	< 0.001	0.839	< 0.001	< 0.001	0.002	0.248
Propionate. mmol/mmol	0.217	0.207	0.205	0.202	0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	0.923	< 0.001	0.023	0.027	0.400
Butyrate, mmol/mmol	0.103	0.102	0.100	0.100	0.001	< 0.001	0.002	0.687	0.490	0.665	0.512	0.381
Acetate:Propionate	2.83	3.03	3.06	3.13	0.028	< 0.001	< 0.001	0.850	< 0.001	0.007	0.019	0.447
CH₄, ml/g DM	30.3	31.5	29.8	30.9	0.47	< 0.001	0.214	0.694	0.002	0.273	0.852	0.041
CH₄, mL/g OM	32.6	34.0	32.1	33.3	1.11	< 0.001	0.235	0.721	0.003	0.272	0.817	0.056
CH₄, mL/g DOM	45.1	47.2	45.1	46.0	0.72	0.005	0.318	0.493	0.007	0.455	0.266	0.183
Total gas, mL/g DM	186	188	181	184	2.6	< 0.001	0.019	0.333	0.130	0.155	0.978	0.060
Total gas, mL/g OM	200	203	195	198	2.9	< 0.001	0.025	0.359	0.143	0.185	0.931	0.076
Total gas, mL/g DOM	276	282	273	273	4.1	< 0.001	0.052	0.282	0.316	0.230	0.255	0.282
CH₄, ml/L of total gas	163	169	164	169	2.7	0.031	0.750	0.362	0.033	0.374	0.838	0.774
Fractional rate of gas production, /h	0.060	0.060	0.057	0.060	0.0006	< 0.001	0.005	0.390	0.002	< 0.001	0.120	0.003

Cuts are numbered 1, 3 and 5 for the three consecutive cuts in the three-cut system and 2 and 4 for 1st and 2nd cuts in the two-cut system, respectively. Cut × DM: Interaction between cut and dry matter; Add, Silage additive (with or without); Cut × Add: Interaction between cut and Add; DM × Add, interaction between DM and Add; Cut × DM × Add, three-way interaction between Cut, DM and Add. DM, dry matter; OM, organic matter, DOM, digestible organic matter.