USE OF MICROBES TO IMPROVE NUTRITIONAL VALUE OF RICE STRAW

Rice straw is the most potential agricultural byproduct. It was reported that the production of dry matter of rice straw was 3 ton/ha. Despite its high potency for animal feed, rice straw has low contents of essential nutrients; its protein level (3 – 4%) is lower than that of grass (5 – 9%). The level of crude fiber of rice straw bound with lignin and silica is 13% of dry matter which causes a low digestibility. The objective of this research was to improve the nutritive value of rice straw by fermentation using rumen liquor, chicken manure and commercial probiotic. The experiment was arranged in a completely randomized design with three treatments and four replications. The treatments consisted of P0: 1 kg of rice straws (control), P1: 1 kg of rice straws + 0.6% commercial probiotic + 0.5% urea + water, P2: 1 kg of rice straws + 0.6% cattle rumen liquor + 0.5% urea + water and P3: 1 kg of rice straws + 0.6% chicken manure + 0.5% urea + water. Results showed that crude protein level of rice straw fermented with chicken manure (P3) was the highest (8.79%) followed by that of rumen liquor treatment (P2) (8.49%) and significantly different from those of commercial probiotic (P1) (5.63%) and control (P0) (2.89%) treatments. Crude fiber level of rice straw fermented with manure (P3) showed the lowest level (39.96%) but not significantly different from rumen liquor (40.02%) and commercial probiotic (40.5%). These values were significantly lower than control/P0 (43.17%). It is concluded that microbes from chicken manure and rumen liqor could improve the nutritive value of rice straw.