Gas emission and respiratory losses during feed-out of silage: a comprehensive study using novel in situ smart-sensors and data-model fusion
Animal Breeding, Animal Nutrition, Animal Husbandry
Final Report Abstract
By performing the proposed study, we have observed the complete deterioration process of the silage under natural aerobic condition. The results demonstrate a series of findings. These new data improve our understanding of the feed-out phase of silage as below: ● During the initial period of the feed-out phase, silage is aerobic stable and gas emission is mainly resulted from the phases of the anaerobic fermentation and storage, i.e., previously accumulated in the sealed silage. In this case, the emission of EtOH is low. ● When aerobic microbes in the surface layer of opened silage become active, i.e., the silage zone become aerobic unstable, the anaerobic environment in the opened zone is established. Consequently, the emission of EtOH become significantly higher. On the other side, in this case oxygen is impeded entering into the deep layer of the silage due to an O2 barrier built up by the active microbes. To our previous knowledge, a decayed layer forms on the surface of silage after it is opened, which leads to a certain amount of mass loss. However, this decayed layer contains a large number of active aerobic bacteria that compete for consuming oxygen, and therefore plays a barrier role in buffering the deep diffusion of oxygen. This was a “surprise” to us and it was not expected in our proposal. ● Two prototypes of the multi-sensor in situ measurement system are successfully developed, one is suitable for commercial silage and the other for mini samples in laboratory experiment following the DLG protocol. These novel instruments provide insight of gas emission from maize silage, relying on the real-time identification of aerobic and anaerobic microbial respiration. Moreover, we achieved the similar results from these innovated systems. ● The mathematical model to convert the time course of pH to the real-time aerobic losses of organic acids has been found. Since silage temperature (Tsi) and pH varied in phase during feed-out, the mirror-mapping principle of the model suits to the time course of Tsi as well. Considering that Tsi in response to the loss of organic acids has not the effect of acid buffer, this parameter may be more valuable but a continuous study is proposed.
Publications
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Insight of CO2 and ethanol emission from maize silage: A case study with real-time identification of aerobic and anaerobic microbial respiration using a multi-sensor-fusion method. Environmental Pollution, 335, 122361.
Shan, Guilin; Sun, Yurui; Maack, Christian; Buescher, Wolfgang; Berchtold, Wilfried & Grantz, David A.
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Greenhouse gas and volatile organic compound emissions of additive-treated whole-plant maize silage: part A—anaerobic fermentation period. Chemical and Biological Technologies in Agriculture, 11(1).
Deeken, Hauke Ferdinand; Büscher, Wolfgang; Trimborn, Manfred; Schmithausen, Alexander J.; Weiß, Kirsten; Lipski, André & Maack, Gerd-Christian
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Greenhouse gas and volatile organic compound emissions of additive-treated whole-plant maize silage: part B—aerobic storage period and carbon footprint of silage additive use. Chemical and Biological Technologies in Agriculture, 11(1).
Deeken, Hauke Ferdinand; Maack, Gerd-Christian; Trimborn, Manfred & Büscher, Wolfgang
