TABLE 2.

Dry matter (DM, g/kg) and microbial counts (log₁₀ colony-forming units/g fresh weight) of whole-plant corn silage during the initial aerobic phase.

Items		CK	CSL	ESL	SEM	P value
DM	0 h	389	364	378	6.2533	0.0612
	A	385	369	372	5.1200	0.1141
	SEM	6.4928	6.8648	2.9492
	P value	0.6972	0.6593	0.1847
pH	0 h	6.05Ab	5.88Bb	5.89B	0.0263	0.0022
	A	6.14Aa	6.03ABa	5.94B	0.0340	0.0080
	SEM	0.0173	0.0291	0.0404
	P value	0.0150	0.0115	0.4851
Lactic acid bacteria	0 h	6.19bB	6.83A	6.93A	0.1939	0.0473
	A	6.59a	6.68	6.55	0.1023	0.6735
	SEM	0.0988	0.0837	0.2353
	P value	0.0267	0.2385	0.2884
Yeasts	0 h	6.73	7.04	7.15	0.2096	0.3818
	A	6.90	7.05	6.90	0.1098	0.5425
	SEM	0.1461	0.1590	0.1933
	P value	0.4295	0.9575	0.3957
Coliforms	0 h	7.20B	7.53A	7.47A	0.0669	0.0174
	A	7.22B	7.42AB	7.53A	0.0751	0.0504
	SEM	0.0763	0.0518	0.0816
	P value	0.8766	0.1926	0.6219
Bacteria	0 h	7.56	8.32	7.88	0.2032	0.0770
	A	7.61	8.28	7.86	0.2377	0.1853
	SEM	0.0454	0.3770	0.0499
	P value	0.5098	0.9498	0.7605

Values with different lowercase letters (a and b) indicate significant differences among treatments on the same time. Values with different uppercase letters (A and B) indicate significant differences between 0 h and anaerobic state (A). CK, whole-plant corn silage without any lactic acid bacterial suspensions; CSL, whole-plant corn silage treated with lactic acid bacterial suspensions prepared from whole-plant corn silage; ESL, whole-plant corn silage treated with lactic acid bacterial suspensions prepared from Elymus sibiricus silage. A, anaerobic state. SEM, standard error of means.