Improving Livestock Production from Straw-Based Diets

Straw alone is a poor quality feed. It is deficient in the soluble nitrogen and minerals needed to support an active and efficient rumen microbial ecosystem and therefore a high feed intake and digestibility. It contains little or none of the nutrients which escape rumen degradation and lacks nutrients that augment the products of fermentative digestion. It is also low in lipid and, although it has a high content of potentially fermentable carbohydrate, it has a low actual digestibility due to the close association of the carbohydrates with lignin. In addition, depending on soil and growing conditions, straw is also deficient in the nutrients required by the microbes that digest straw e.g., Co and S, and in the minerals essential to the well-being of the animal e.g., P, Na, Mg, Cu, and Zn.