Effects of Lactobacillus buchneri as a silage inoculant and as a probiotic on feed intake, apparent digestibility and ruminal fermentation and microbiology in wethers fed low‐dry‐matter whole‐crop maize silage

Abstract Lactobacillus buchneri was investigated as a silage inoculant and as a probiotic on feed intake, apparent digestibility, and ruminal fermentation and microbiology in wethers fed low‐dry‐matter ( DM ) whole‐crop maize silage. Maize forage (279 g/kg DM ) was ensiled without inoculant (untreated) and with L. buchneri CNCM I‐4323 at 1 × 10 5 cfu/g fresh forage (inoculated). Six cannulated wethers were arranged in a double 3 × 3 Latin square and assigned to one of three diets: (i) untreated maize silage (untreated), (ii) inoculated maize silage (inoculated), and (iii) untreated maize silage with a daily dose of L. buchneri (1 × 10 7 cfu/g supplied silage) injected directly into the rumen ( LB ‐probiotic). Wethers fed the inoculated diet had a higher ( p = .050) DM intake (1.30% body weight [ BW ]) than wethers fed untreated and LB ‐probiotic diets (1.17% and 1.18% BW respectively). The relative proportion of Ruminococcus flavefaciens (proportion of total estimated rumen bacterial 16S rDNA ) in the rumen of wethers fed inoculated and LB ‐probiotic diets (both 0.42%) tended ( p = .098) to be lower than in the untreated diet (0.83%). Lactobacillus buchneri as a silage inoculant or as a probiotic had little effect on the variables measured in wethers.