In a series of production studies undertaken at this Institute with growing and finishing beef and dairy cattle an inoculant based on a single strain of Lactobacillus plantarum ,when applied to easy and difficult-to-ensile herbage, has produced considerable benefits in terms of silage intake and animal performance without any apparent improvement in silage fermentation. More recently detailed studies have shown that treatment of herbage at ensiling with the same inoculant has resulted in increased degradability of nitrogen (N) in the rumen, and total tract digestibility of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), N, neutral detergent fibre (NDF), and modified acid detergent fibre (MADF). Treatment with the inoculant has also altered rumen volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentrations by increasing rumen propionate and decreasing acetate concentrations.

It has been suggested that the effects of inoculant treatment on silage DM intake may be due to the presence of the applied bacteria when they reach the rumen rather than their effects in the silo.