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Improving Digestibility of Straws for Ruminant Feed by Aqueous Ammonia

U. S. Department of Agriculture,^,1 Berkeley, California 94710 and University of California, Davis 95616

Abstract

Digestibility and nutritive value of straws can be improved by treatment with aqueous ammonia at ordinary room temperature in a confined system. Experiments indicate that optimal process conditions are to treat rice straw with 5% of added ammonia (by wt) and 30% of added water (by wt) for about 30 days at ambient temperatures. Under these conditions, enzymatic digestibility is increased 10% and nitrogen content is increased 133%. In vivo digestibility trials also show enhanced digestibility of treated rice straw. Other cellulosic wastes respond to ammonia treatment in a similar manner.

¹ Agricultural Research Service, Western Regional Research Laboratory,Berkeley, California.Reference to a company or product name does not imply approval or recommendation of the product by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to the exclusion of others that may be suitable.

² Department of Animal Science, University of California at Davis, Davis, California.