Showing papers in "Journal of Animal Science in 1972"

Chemical Treatment of Low Quality Roughages

Abstract: Summary A LFALFA stems, corn cobs, whole corn plant and corn stalks were treated with sodium hydroxide or peroxides and fed to lambs in digestion and metabolism trials. The dry roughages were mixed with the chemicals and enough water to increase the moisture to 50%. The materials were fed after a 48-hr. reaction period or after ensiling. Four percent NaOH treatment increased the dry matter digestibility of alfalfa stems by 6.8 percentage units. Corn cob dry matter digestibility in- creased by 11.2 percentage units due to 4% NaOH treatment. In vitro DMD of whole corn plant increased 9.7 percentage units but in vivo 'organic matter digestibility increased by only 2.5 percentage units. In vitro DMD of corn stalks increased 12.8 and 19.5 per= centage units, respectively, with 3 and 5% NaOH treatment. In vivo organic matter di- gestibility of corn stalks increased 10.1 and 11.2 percentage units, respectively, for 3 and 5% NaOH treatment when fed supplemented only with urea, minerals and vitamins. The five percent NaOH treated stalks showed a 20.5 percentage unit increase in organic mat- ter digestibility compared to untreated stalks when both were fed in combination with ground alfalfa stems. These results indicate that poor quality roughages can be treated with 3 to 5% NaOH, the moist mixture after ensiling is consumed readily by lambs without further treatment, and that the dry matter digestibility is increased by sufficient magni- tude to potentially improve animal perfor- mance. Introduction Low quality roughages are inefficiently util- ized by ruminants because of high content and poor digestibility of the fibrous fractions. This poor digestibility is related to the extent of

Digestibility of hydrogenated tallow, saturated fatty acids and soybean oil-supplemented diets by sheep.

Abstract: A TOTAL of 28 crossbred wethers were used in two experiments to determine the digestibilty of hydrogenated tallow-, saturated fatty acidsand soybean oil-supplemented diets. Digestibility values for individual fats were determined by subtracting from total dietary lipid and fecal output the dietary and fecal lipids measured with basal diets. In the first experiment addition of 3% flaked, hydrogenated tallow to a basal diet resulted in lower digestibility (34%) for the tallow compared with soybean oil (98%). In the second experiment, hydrogenated tallow was added to a basal diet at approximately the 4.8% level either in dry flaked form or melted and mixed (blended) into the concentrate portion of the basal diet. A further treatment comparison involved addition of saturated free fatty acids at approximately the 4.8% level to the basal diet. Tenday digestion trials were conducted starting at 10 and again at 35 days of this experiment to measure adaptation of sheep to fat-supplemented diets. Melting and mixing the tallow into the diet resulted in significant (P< .01) improvement in digestibility over flaked tallow (40% vs. 30%). Saturated fatty acids were significantly (P<.01) better digested (73%) than either form of tallow. Blood plasma lipid fatty acid levels of sheep reflected these differences in digestibility after 33 days on feed. It is suggested that the hydrogenation process results in tallow with physical form which resists dispersion and hydrolysis in the rumen and solubilization in the small intestine. Additions of soybean oil, saturated fatty acids and hydrogenated tallow tended to lower digestibilities of crude fiber and acid detergent fiber. The decreases were significant