THE EFFECT OF CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL TREATMENTS ON IMPROVING THE NUTRITIVE VALUE OF CORN COBS AND WILD REED

Abstract

This study was conducted in Animal Resources Department , College of Agriculture to estimate the effect of chemical and biological treatments to improve the nutritive value of poor quality roughages ( corn cobs and wild reed ) .
The feeds were treated chemically with 4% NaoH solution ,whereas Aspergillus niger was used to ferment corn cobs and wild reed samples .
The chemical analysis showed that protein percentages of corn cobs and wild reed was increased significantly (P<0.05) from 6.05% to 10.51% and 17.70% and from 3.10 %to 6.50% and 9.96% for both chemical and biological treatments respectively.
The crude fiber percentages decreased significantly (P<0.05) from 29.19% and 26.10% to 23.60% and 20.10% for chemical treatment and was 20.20% and 14.50% after biological treatment for both corn cobs and wild reed respectively .
In Vitro dry matter and organic matter digestibility was increased significantly ( p<0.05) by using both treatments .
The results of this study indicated an improvement in the nutritive value for corn cobs and wild reed when treated chemically with 4% NaOH and biologically with Aspergillus niger .