The experiment was conducted at Jiangxiaobai Red Sticky Sorghum Planting Demonstration Base (29°07′N, 106°16′E), located in Chongqing, China. The area has a mean temperature of 17.9°C, and a mean annual rainfall of 1,100 mm during the last 30 years (Chongqing Meteorological Bureau). The soil was a neutral yellow soil with a pH 7.5, alkali-dispelled nitrogen 96.15 mg/kg, available phosphorus (Olsen-P) 17.83 mg/kg, and available potassium 90.15 mg/kg.
The red sticky Sorghum bicolor cv. Chuannuoliang 2 is the principal variety planting in this base for Baijiu (distilled liquor) production. Sorghum-Canola rotation system is used in this base. Generally, the sorghum will be sown in May after the canola is harvested, and be harvested in August, then the canola will be sown in October. From August to October, there is about 2 months’ fallow period, which is suitable for the regrowth of the harvested sorghum, called ratooning sorghum. Currently, the ratooning sorghum is chopped and returned to soils or discarded. In this study, on 2th October, 2020 and 10th October, 2021, the ratooning sorghum at their heading and flowering stage were harvested for whole plant silage (above 5 cm from the ground). These ratooning sorghums have the potential to be used as fodder or silage.
A. niger was bought from Beijing Beina Chuanglian Biotechnology Research Institute. Before used as additives, the A. niger was cultured on Potato Dextrose Agar medium (PDA) at 28°C for 72 h, then, the activated A. niger was inoculated into Potato Dextrose Broph liquid medium (PDB) at 32°C for 3 days at 170 ~ 180 r/min (Wang et al., 2007 (link)). When the concentration of A. niger solution reached 2.56 × 107 CFU/mL, it was evenly sprayed on the silage as additives.
The red sticky Sorghum bicolor cv. Chuannuoliang 2 is the principal variety planting in this base for Baijiu (distilled liquor) production. Sorghum-Canola rotation system is used in this base. Generally, the sorghum will be sown in May after the canola is harvested, and be harvested in August, then the canola will be sown in October. From August to October, there is about 2 months’ fallow period, which is suitable for the regrowth of the harvested sorghum, called ratooning sorghum. Currently, the ratooning sorghum is chopped and returned to soils or discarded. In this study, on 2th October, 2020 and 10th October, 2021, the ratooning sorghum at their heading and flowering stage were harvested for whole plant silage (above 5 cm from the ground). These ratooning sorghums have the potential to be used as fodder or silage.
A. niger was bought from Beijing Beina Chuanglian Biotechnology Research Institute. Before used as additives, the A. niger was cultured on Potato Dextrose Agar medium (PDA) at 28°C for 72 h, then, the activated A. niger was inoculated into Potato Dextrose Broph liquid medium (PDB) at 32°C for 3 days at 170 ~ 180 r/min (Wang et al., 2007 (link)). When the concentration of A. niger solution reached 2.56 × 107 CFU/mL, it was evenly sprayed on the silage as additives.
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