Ammonia Nitrogen

High levels of ammonia nitrogen show that there has been excessive protein degradation, either due to prolonged wilting (the plant will degrade itself lying in the field) or due to microbial activity. Ammonia should preferably be <15% of the CP in corn silage, <10% in grass and alfalfa silages and haylages. Excess microbial proteolysis (protein degradation) could be due to clostridia (look for the butyric acid level also to be high: >1% DM) or due to other proteolytic bacteria (e.g. Enterococcus faecium).