Silage Additive

Unlock Superior Animal Performance with Ecosyl Silage Additives

At Quinns, we understand that the quality of silage is a crucial factor in animal performance. High-quality silage represents a significant portion of an animal’s diet, making efficient and rapid fermentation essential to capturing the maximum nutritional value of the original forage. Over 200 trials across various crops and ensiling conditions have demonstrated that Ecosyl improves both fermentation speed and efficiency.

Beyond Fermentation: Enhancing Animal Performance

While silage fermentation quality is important, it is not always a direct indicator of animal performance. Standard analyses often report only a few fermentation parameters, missing the broader benefits. Notably, Ecosyl inoculants have shown to enhance animal performance even when traditional fermentation parameters remain unchanged. This suggests that Ecosyl influences other critical aspects of silage quality.

Proven Results in Feeding Trials

The true measure of silage performance comes from feeding trials. Ecosyl-treated silages have shown significant improvements in dry matter (DM) intake, digestibility, and metabolizable energy (ME). On average, Ecosyl increases silage DM intake by 5% and organic matter digestibility (OMD) by 3 ‘D’ units compared to untreated silage.

Enhanced Digestibility and ME

Research has shown that Ecosyl has a particularly strong impact on organic matter digestibility in high DM grass crops and lower digestibility crops. With Ecosyl, grass can be harvested at the usual time with higher digestibility or later for higher yield without loss in digestibility. In 11 studies, Ecosyl increased ME by 0.4 MJ/kgDM on average.

Improved Nitrogen Utilisation

Better nitrogen utilisation is another key benefit of Ecosyl. Faster fermentation reduces the breakdown of true protein, leading to diets that are more efficiently utilized by rumen microorganisms. This results in increased nitrogen digestibility and retention.

Silage Additive

Table 1: Improvements with Ecosyl Treatment

Parameter Untreated Ecosyl No. of Trials
Silage DM intake (kg/day) 8.20 8.62* 34
OM digestibility (%DM) 71.3 74.0* 26
ME (MJ/kgDM) 10.6 11.2* 11

*Statistically significant difference

Table 2: Nitrogen Utilisation Improvements with Ecosyl

Parameter Untreated Ecosyl No. of Trials
N digestibility (g/kg) 671 695* 20
N retention (g/day)/td> 31.1 37.9* 19

*Statistically significant difference

An ongoing project at the United States Dairy Forage Research Center (USDFRC) has confirmed these findings, showing significant reductions in milk urea nitrogen with Ecosyl treatment. This suggests an increase in rumen microbial biomass production, with microbial protein being the primary protein source for ruminants.

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