Effects of Some Additives, Harvest Stage and Wilting on Quality Characteristics of Alfalfa Silage

Although alfalfa is a good forage plant, it is one of the difficult to ensiled crops. the high protein content, low water soluble carbohydrate and dry matter content of alfalfa prevents healthy fermentation. therefore, this study focused on the use of additives, arrangement of cutting time and wilting after cutting of alfalfa to make successful silage. the research was carried out at ataturk university, faculty of agriculture in erzurum, turkey. it was arranged in a completely randomized experimental design with 3 replications. in the experiment, effects of 4 additives (non-additive, 5% molasses, 10% rolled barley and 5%molasses + 10% rolled barley), 2 cutting stages (early blooming and late blooming) and 2 wilting (unwilted and wilted) on alfalfa silage quality are analyzed. in study, dry matter content, crude protein content, neutral detergent fiber (ndf) content,relative feeding value (rfv), silage ph and physical quality score of 48 silage samples are determined.in alfalfa silage, use of additives reduced the ph and ndf content, but increased dry matter content, rfv and silage quality score. these positive effects were more apparent with the use of molasses and rolled barley together. delaying cutting time of alfalfa reduces crude protein content and increased ndf content. moreover, in late cutting, fermentation was more successfuland silage ph was decreased from 5.60 to 4.31. making silage by wilting alfalfa increased dry matter content and thus had positive effect on fermentation and silage quality. according to the results of this study, in order to make successful silage from alfalfa, addition of molasses + rolled barley, cutting alfalfa in late flowering and wilting after cutting can be suggested.