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A Comparison of the Wiegner and Wiseman Methods for Determination of Volatile Acids in Silage¹

Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station, Amherst

ABSTRACT

For a number of years, the Wiegner (11) method of determining volatile acids in silage has been employed in our silage research program. This method has the advantage of being reasonably rapid and requiring no elaborate equipment or expensive chemicals. In addition to the description in the original reference, it is described in detail by Watson and Ferguson (10). However, it is a third of a century since the method was published and several others have been proposed since (1–9). Its principal disadvantage is that it determines only acetic and butyric acid, thus necessitating a separate determination of such acids as propionic and lactic, both of which occur in silage, lactic acid especially being of considerable significance in determining silage quality.

About 3 yr. ago, Wiseman et al. (12) published a method based on column chromatography, which determines directly not only propionic and lactic acids in addition to acetic and butyric but also such others as formic and succinic.

¹ Contribution No. 1250 of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.