PV and CS used in the experiment were grown in Funan, a
county along Huai River in Anhui Province of China and
harvested at the maturity stage on September 28, 2009 and
September 16, 2010. The straws were chopped into 2-3 cm
lengths and then mixed manually. In the experiment, PV was
ensiled alone or was mixed with CS by a ratio of 1:1. Four
treatments were prepared in each plot, including control (C),
lactic acid bacteria (LAB, Lactobacillus plantarum, Chikuso-
1, Snow Brand Ltd., Japan; applied at 1×105 cfu g-1 fresh
material), wheat bran (WB, applied at 10% rate of fresh
material) and LAB (the same as LAB inoculants alone) plus
wheat bran (the same as adds alone) (LAB+WB). All of the
materials were packed in 30 cm×20 cm polyethylene bags
with 3 replications for each treatment and the weight of the
silages was 0.3 kg in 2009 and 0.5 kg in 2010. Silage bags
were stored in a dark room at indoor temperature for 60 d.