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Alkali Treatment of Cereal Grains. I. in Situ and in Vitro Evaluation

University of Illinois, Urbana 61801

Abstract

Three in situ digestion studies with nylon bags were conducted to determine the effect of alkali treatment on ruminal digestion of whole corn, sorghum grain, oats, barley and wheat. The chemical treatments and 24-hr in situ digestibilities averaged across the five grains in trial 1 were: air dried, 10.2; reconstituted (RC), 19.0; 3% NaOH, 46.2%; 6% NaOH, 74.5; 3% NH₄OH, 25.8, and 6% NH₄OH, 37.3. The alkali-treated samples were the RC grains with NaOH or NH4 OH added on a dry matter basis. Digestibilities for corn, sorghum grain, oats, barley and wheat, averaged across the six chemical treatments, were 29.4, 30.0, 26.4, 34.9 and 56.8%, respectively. A grain x treatment interaction (P<.01) was observed. Ruminal digestion of wheat increased dramatically with all chemical treatments. NH4OH tended to reduce the digestibility of barley. In trial 2, the same dry cereal grains were treated with 0, 2, 4 and 6% NaOH. Untreated grains ground through a 20-mesh screen served as positive controls. The ruminal digestibilities of the 0,2,4 and 6% NaOH-treated grains and of the ground grains were 4.4, 48.3, 60.9, 71.7 and 81.2%, respectively, when averaged across the five cereals. In trial 3, corn was treated with 0, 2, 4 or 6% NaOH and allowed to react for 1, 12, 24 or 48 hr before 24-hr ruminal digestion was measured. Averaged across the four NaOH levels, ruminal digestibilities after 1, 12, 24 and 48 hr of reaction were 18.5, 24.0, 26.4 and 34.3%, respectively. The in vitro dry matter digestibilities of cereal grains treated with 0, 2, 4 or 6% NaOH and of untreated grains with 2, 4 or 6% NaOH added to the in vitro inoculum were also determined. The grains were ground through a 20-mesh screen after treatment, and digestibility was measured after 3,6, 12 and 24 hr of digestion. There was a linear increase (P<.01) in the digestibilities of grains treated with the 2, 4 and 6% NaOH. Improvements in digestibility were greatest at 3 and 6 hours. Additions of NaOH to the in vitro inoculum had no effect on grain digestibility.

¹ Dept. of Anim. Sci.

² Present address: Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock 79409.