Effect of Amino Acids and Effective Microorganisms on Meadow Silage Chemical Composition

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This research is interesting. However some aspects related with concepts as "stimulants", should be clarified in more detail in introduction and discussion (as briefly in abstract).

I suggest that the review published by Vazquez-Hernandez et al. 2019 in Scientia Horticulturae should be used in the discussion of the mentioned aspects.

After these considerations I think with this minor revision the paper might be accepted.

Author Response

All questions were answered 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

In this manuscript, Radkowski and colleagues reported their findings on the effect of amino acids and microorganisms on meadow silage chemical composition. The manuscript is lacking meaningful results and comprehensive discussions, which need further experiments and interpretations before publication.
First and most important, the effect of either amino acids or amino acids with microorganisms did not significantly differ between control plants, in any of the testing parameters. It is possibly due to the high variations between three cuts, especially for the third one. I'm quite confident that the improving effects for both of them do exist, but the authors need to show them in a statistically significant way. Perhaps a better experiment design with more replicates, or removing third cut will do the magic.
Second, even if the potential of foliar application of amino acids and microorganisms is promising, the authors did not provide adequate justification. For example, the author claimed that treatment with amino acids increased the content of total protein and raw fat (not sure about that, maybe ether extract?) in silage, but did not explain the mechanism underlying this phenomenon. Why did they, especially "raw fat", increase? How did previous studies say? What are the possible molecular and biochemical mechanisms that may get affected? If amino acid application increased plant N-assimilation, how to balance between cost and yield? Without detailed information in the discussion, it is just reporting, not researching of your objectives.

Author Response

All questions were answered 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

The paper concerns a very important issue - the use of amino acids and effective microorganisms to increase the quality of meadow silage. Until now, these products have been used on a larger scale to stimulate the growth and development of other, mainly crop plants. Therefore, I think that this study are original.

The work is carefully written, but requires some corrections:

1. Introduction should be completed. The Authors focused mainly on characterizing the impact of the tested stimulants on the growth and development of plants, while ignoring the issues related to the quality of silage. As they pointed out in the manuscript, there is a lack of data on the use of amino acids and effective microorganisms on meadow plants, but there are certainly many studies on the quality of silages and their nutritional value. And this is also the topic of the study.
2. The study assessed the value (chemical composition) of silage, not the "value of plants", as in some places the Authors report; therefore it should be corrected throughout the paper
3. Size units should be standardized, e.g. "g∙kg", other times "g kg"
4. Keywords should be corrected
5. Authors should avoid repeating the same words/expressions, e.g. in tables and their titles
6. Minor errors in the references
7. Other comments are marked directly in the text

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

All questions were answered 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The response did not satisfactorily address the problems.

Author Response

All questions were answered. Detailed answers are attached. Thank you very much for all your comments.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx