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 .