An intercropping system with maize and climbing beans has the potential to improve the protein- and energy supply from regional grown roughage. Up to now there is only limited knowledge to the ensilage and to silage quality. Therefore maize with six bean cultivars in mixed cultivation as well as maize with a controlled proportion of beans were tested on fermentability and silage quality. Additionally the use of chemical and biological silage additives were evaluated. With the mixed cultivation of maize and beans a good silage quality could be achieved when the harvest material showed
good ensiling characteristics and the ensiling conditions were optimized. If this should not be the case, the application of silage additives can have a positive effect. Above all a good silage quality could be achieved by the chemical additive Kofasil stabil
