Studies on the nitrogen metabolism of the ensilage process

✍ Scribed by A. R. Kemble

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1956
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 419 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-5142
• DOI: 10.1002/jsfa.2740070206

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The overall changes in nitrogen distribution occurring in laboratory silage have been investigated and, in particular, quantitative determinations of most of the monoamino‐monocarboxylic acids have been made. Both good and bad silages have been studied. In the good silage the amounts of free arnino‐acids present were, in varying degrees, less than those calculated from the extent of protein breakdown which had occurred. In the bad silage, a considerable excess of alanine above that which could have been formed by uniform proteolysis was present during the first three weeks of the fermentation, and, after eight weeks, α‐aminobutyric acid began to appear.

When some micro‐organism‐free grass was ‘ensiled’, extensive proteolysis occurred, excess alanine was again formed but no free ammonia appeared. These results enable a distinction to be drawn between some of the enzymic and bacterial reactions which occur simultaneously in the silo.