Potential factors causing failure of whole plant nettle (Urtica cannabina) silages

IntroductionNettle is kind of new feed resources and benefit for animal production. However, a few studies observed that quality of nettle silage was poor under naturally fermentation. Consider of microbial activity was the mainly factors for fermentation characteristics of silage.MethodsThus, the present study investigated the potential factors causing nettle silage failure through metabolome and bacterial community composition analyses during ensiling.ResultsDuring ensiling, the pH was >6.22, and water-soluble carbohydrate and organic acid contents stabilized after 7 d. At the genus level, Enterococcus, Weissella, and Pediococcus were the dominant bacteria (relative abundance were 30.06–39.39, 17.29–23.34, and 3.13–7.22%, respectively), with stable trends, whereas Lactococcus and Enterobacter relative abundance decreased significantly over time (relative abundance were 5.68–13.96 and 3.86–24.1%, respectively). Lactobacillus relative abundance was