Crude protein straw

Maize straw, or corn stover, has a higher nutrient content and is more digestible than most other straws. It has a crude protein content of about 60 g/kg DM and a metabolisable energy value of about 9 MJ/kg DM. In North America, com stover is... 

An alternative alkali to sodium hydroxide is ammonia, which may be applied to straw in the anhydrous form or as a concentrated solution. As both forms are volatile, the process has to be carried out in a sealed container, which may be formed by wrapping a stack of straw bales in plastic sheeting. As ammonia is a weaker alkali than sodium hydroxide, it reacts slowly with the straw the time required for treatment ranges from 1 day, if heat is applied to raise the temperature to 85 °C, to 1 month at winter temperatures. The ammonia is added at 30-35 kg/t of straw, and when the stack is exposed to the air about two-thirds of this is lost by volatihsation.The remainder is bound to the straw and raises its crude protein content... 

The main by-products of oatmeal milling are oat husks or hulls, oat dust and meal seeds.The hulls form the main by-product, about 70 per cent of the total, and the commercial product consists of the true husks with a variable proportion, up to 10 per cent, of kernel material. Oat hulls are of very low feeding value, being little better than oat straw. Their crude protein content is so low (about 30 g/kg DM) that in digestibility studies negative digestibility coefficients for nitrogen are likely... 

When straws and other low-quality roughages are treated with ammonia (see p. 529), about 0.3-0.5 of the ammonia is retained by the roughage and may be utilised by the rumen microorganisms in the same way as ammonia derived from urea. Similarly, urea treatment of whole crop cereals can be used to produce an alkaline preserved forage with a pH of approximately pH 8.0, and increase the crude protein content by 40-80 g/kg DM. 

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