Assessment Of Improvement Of Chemically And Biologically Treated Maize Stover And Subsquent Utilization Of Treated Materials For Beef Production

ABSTRACT

Two studies were conducted to evaluate effectiveness of CaO, enzymes, microbes and Ca(OH)2 in improving the feeding value of maize stover (MS) for beef animals. Study I involved five treatments; untreated MS (T1), CaO treated MS (T2), CaO + enzymes treated MS (T3), CaO + microbes treated MS (T4), CaO + enzymes + microbes treated MS (T5). Study II involved untreated MS (T6) and MS treated with Ca (OH)2 (T7). The treatments were evaluated for chemical composition, degradability, gas production, digestibility and animal performance. Differently treated MS were fed to 80 steers and 32 steers in study I and II respectively. There was increase in CP, CF, ash and calcium while NDF was reduced in treated MS. Disappearance values at 48hrs ranged 40 to 51% units for dry matter (DM) and 40 to 47% units for organic matter (OM). The `a’ values for DM and OM degradability were 3.17% and 9.44%, 1.02% and 4.71% in untreated and treated MS respectively while the `c’ value was 0.012%/h and 0.02%/h, for treated and for untreated MS. Gas production values at 24hrs ranged 22 to 35 ml/g DM. The `b’ values were 36.2% in untreated and 42.54% for treated MS. T3 had the highest In vitro organic matter digestibility (OMD) (55%) while T5 had the lowest (48.2%). T1 had the highest Metabolizable Energy (ME) (7.2 MJ/kg DM) while T4 had lowest (5 MJ/kg DM). Dry matter intake, final body weight and average daily gain were higher for T1 and T6 than T2, T3, T4, T5 and T7. The steers on T7 had higher DM digestibility (70.2%) than those on T6 (55.7%). It is concluded that the lime treatment was effective in solubilizing the cell wall constituents and improve the digestibility of MS but had a negative effect on intake and body weight gain.