AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATION CENTRE www.arccjournals.com / www.legumeresearch.in Legume Res., 37 (6) : 621-627, 2014 THE EFFECT OF FORAGE HARVEST DATE AND INOCULATION ON THE YIELD AND FERMENTATION CHARACTERISTICS OF NARROW-LEAVED LUPIN (LUPINUS ANGUSTIFOLIUS ) WHEN ENSILED AS A WHOLE CROP A. Faligowska*, M. Selwet 1 , K. Panasiewicz, G. Szymañska and K. Smiatacz Department of Agronomy , Faculty of Agronomy and Bioengineering, Poznañ University of Life Sciences, ul. Dojazd 11, 60-632 Poznañ, Poland Received: 15-03-2014 Accepted: 31-08-2014 ABSTRACT A experiment was conducted during seasons of the year 2005, 2006 and 2007 to evaluate the effects of the stage of maturity and inoculant application on the fermentation quality of silage produced from narrow leaved lupin. The trial was carried out on the experimental farm in Gorzyñ, belonging to Poznañ University of Life Sciences (52 0 33’53 N, 15 0 53’42 E) in central part of Europe in Poland. A two-factor field experiment was carried out on narrow-leaved lupin cv. Zeus. The first factor was the green forage harvest dates (Cut 1 - at the flat pod stage, Cut 2 – at the stage of green ripe seeds), the other factor – silage inoculants: biological (strains of lactic acid bacteria), chemical (a mixture of organic acids) and a control object without inoculants. The silage raw material was closed in mini- silos for 10 weeks. The crops had a fresh matter yield from 15.8 to 30.8 t ha -1 corresponding to a dry matter yield from 2.2 to 8.8 t ha -1 . The dry matter content in unwilted forage per kilogram ranged from 178.8 to 233.8 g. 24-hour wilting caused an increase in dry matter content from 205.5 to 349.5 g kg -1 . Both inoculates improved the quality of silages, because they increased the number of lactic acid bacteria and decreased the number of unfavourable groups of bacteria. The narrow-leaved lupin can be used as a silage raw material, but before ensilage plants should be wilted and silage inoculants should be applied. Key words: Forage, Harvest date, Inoculation, Lupin, Silage. *Corresponding author’s e-mail: faliga@up.poznan.pl 1 Department of General and Environmental Microbiology, ul. Szyd³owska 50, 60-656 Poznañ, Poland INTRODUCTION The EU Common Agricultural Policy encourages farmers to practise sustainable crop rotation and it also encourages good, environment- friendly farming practice and simultaneously it substantially increases the production of plant proteins (Borreani et al . 2007). Forage legumes are widely used as previous crops to improve soil fertility and to increase the yield of subsequent crops in rotation (Gül et al . 2008). Legume crops, which capture atmospheric nitrogen and “fix” it into forms available to plants, can be used strategically in rotations to meet the needs of nitrogen demanding crops, for example wheat or rape. According to FAOSTAT (Idziak et al . 2013) maize is one of the most common plants cultivated all over the world. Maize silage is a high-quality forage crop that is used on many dairy farms and on some beef cattle farms (Iptas and Yavuz, 2008), but ensiling pulses as a whole-crop forage is a good way of providing a cheaper, non-animal-based and traceable (source- verified) home-grown protein and starch for livestock (Cavallarin et al . 2007). Legume pulses such as field peas, faba beans and lupins are annual crops that are well suited for short crop rotations when harvested as ensiled forage (Borreani et al . 2007). The results of the research conducted by Borreani et al . (2009) show that field pea, faba bean and white lupin can be successfully ensiled after a wilting period in good weather conditions and with the addition of a lactic acid bacteria inoculant. Voytekhovich (2000) suggests that as far as nutrition is concerned, narrow- leaved lupin silage is of better quality than white lupin silage. In comparison, narrow-leaved lupin varieties mature early, which increases the likelihood of crop maturity. Likewise, narrow-leaved lupin has