Table 6. Effect of harvest and wilting time on microbial counts of rye silage

Harvest date	Wilting period¹⁾	LAB	F&Y	TM
Harvest date	Wilting period¹⁾	Log CFU/g of FM
April 30 (Boot)	0 h	3.85^b	3.95^c	4.75^b
	6 h	6.02^a	5.13^b	6.06^a
	24 h	6.03^a	5.49^a	6.07^a
	Mean	5.30^C	4.86^B	5.63^C
May 9 (Heading)	0 h	6.44^c	5.00^a	7.09^b
	6 h	6.83^b	2.92^b	6.98^b
	24 h	7.34^a	3.16^b	7.92^a
	Mean	6.87^A	3.70^C	7.33^A
May 15 (Blooming)	0 h	5.97^c	5.26^c	6.02^c
	6 h	6.52^b	5.95^b	6.58^b
	24 h	7.37^a	7.50^a	7.62^a
	Mean	6.62^B	6.24^A	6.74^B
SEM		0.08	1.04	2.36
p-value	H	< .0001	< .0001	< .0001
	W	< .0001	< .0001	0.6022
	H × W	< .0001	< .0001	0.0004

0 h, no wilting before ensiling; 6 h, wilted for 6 hours before ensiling; 24 h, wilted for 24 hours before ensiling.
Within a column, different superscripts in capital letters indicate that main plots differ;
those in lower-case letters indicate that sub-plots differ (p < 0.05).
LAB, lactic acid bacteria; F&Y, fungi and yeast; TM, total microorganisms; CFU, colony forming units; FM, fresh matter; H, Harvest date; W, wilting.