ORIGINAL ARTICLES

   EFFECT OF FEEDING ALKALI-TREATED CEREAL STRAWS
                     ON THE GROWTH OF YOUNG CATTLE*

By N. D. KEHAR, Head of the Division of Animal Nutrition, Indian Veterinary
                                 Research Institute, Izatnagar

                   (Received for publication on 29 February 1954)

                                    (With five text-figures)

CEREAL straws are characterised by low percentage of protein, poor digest-
ibility and a high percentage of fibre. As such they represent a fodder of rela-
tively low nutritive value. In agriculturally advanced countries cereal straws
do not ordinarily constitute more than a portion of the roughage for livestock. In
India, however, cereal straws assume special significance inasmuch as they constitute
by far the largest proportion of roughage, and most of the farm animals subsist on
fodder alone. Any attempt, therefore, to improve the nutritive value of straws
would be of great economic value in developing the livestock industry.

With the ripening of the plant the cellulose of the cell walls, which is empirical-
ly estimated as crude fibre, undergoes a process of lignification rendering it woody
and indigestible. Since the beginning of this century, numerous attempts have
been made to make a better use of the coarse feeding stuffs by different methods.
Taking advantage of the susceptibility of lignin to the action of dilute alkalies,
Lehmann [1900] found that by boiling with caustic soda solution under pressure,
the digestibility of straw was increased by about 50 per cent. But since commercial
utilization of such a method proved expensive, Beckmann [1919] introduced a
technique in which no heat treatment was required. Godden [1920] simplified the
process by dipping the chopped straw overnight in a 1.5 per cent caustic soda solu-
tion, removing the straw so as to drain the alkali and then heating in a current of
steam for about an hour. By such treatment, the digestibility of crude fibre and
nitrogen-free-extract in oat straw was increased from 60.1 to 87.4 and 39.6 to 62.9
per cent respectively. Further simplification in the process was introduced by
Slade, Watson, and Ferguson [1939] who showed that there was a marked rise in
the starch-equivalent content of wheat or oat straw by soaking it for 24 hours at
ordinary temperature in eight times its weight of 1.25 per cent caustic soda solution.

Following the line of work of these overseas workers, Sen, Ray and Talapatra
[1942] carried out observations on the treatment of wheat and paddy straws by
dilute caustic soda solution. The results of their study have shown that the alkali
treatment increases the digestibility coefficient of total carbohydrates from 51 to
72 and from 57 to 76 of wheat and paddy straws respectively. This increased

* This investigation was carried out under the auspices of the Indian Council of Agricultural
Research.

104 AR/54

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