• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 1988

Ninety feeder steers, predominantly Herefords weighing 280 kg, were assigned at random to each of nine diets: basal (high concentrate); 25 or 50% of untreated rice straw (25- or 50 URS) or ammoniated rice straw (25- or 50 ARS); a 50:50 mixture of URS - alfalfa or ARS - alfalfa replacing a proportion of the basal at 25 and 50%. Animals were slaughtered after 154 or 161 days of feeding. The cattle fed 50% URS had the lowest (P<.05) carcass weight, dressing & external fat thickness, kidney, pelvic and heart fat, rib eye area, marbling score, quality and yield grades, followed by cattle fed 50% ARS, 50% rice straw/alfalfa, and 25% rice straw alone or 25% rice straw/alfalfa mixture. Ammoniation of rice straw improved all measured traits. A 25% substitution of basal diet with untreated or ammoniated rice straw and a 50% substitution with rice straw/alfalfa mixture did not significantly affect carcass traits compared to the basal group. Only 50% ARS and 50% URS cattle showed differences in body composition (P<.05) with lower fat and higher water and protein contents. No significant differences were found in shear value, panel tenderness, connective tissue, juiciness, flavor and overall palatability of meat from steers fed the basal, ARS or URS diets.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.906-912
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• 2000

The effect of ammonia treatment and rice bran supplementation on the in situ rumen degradation of rice straw was determined using three Japanese Corriedale wethers fitted with permanent rumen cannula. About 4 g samples of diets containing 100% untreated rice straw (URS); 100% ammonia treated rice straw (ARS); 65% URS+30% rice bran (RB)+5% soybean meal (SBM) (T1); and 85% ARS+15% RB (T2) were incubated at 0, 4, 8, 16, 24, 48, 72, and 96 hours in the rumen of sheep to measure dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) degradability. The DM disappearance of ARS based diets were about 20% higher than that of URS based diets. Rice bran supplementation improved DM disappearance of URS but not on ammoniated straw. Degradation parameters showed that ammoniation increased rate (c) of straw degradation resulting to higher DM and fiber degradability but RB supplementation did not. ARS gave similar DM and CP solubility and effective rumen degradability (ED) with that of the supplemented groups indicating that ammoniation alone can give the same effect on rumen degradability of sheep receiving low quality roughage. All degradation parameters for NDF were consistently higher in ARS based-diets indicating improved fiber solubility. Rice bran supplementation did not affect degradation characteristics of the diets except on soluble DM and CP fraction (A) of URS but not on ARS.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.490-496
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• 2000

In vivo digestibility, nitrogen retention and microbial protein yield from diets of 100% ammonia treated rice straw (ARS) ($D_1$); 65% untreated rice straw (URS)+30% rice bran (RB)+5% SBM ($D_2$) and 85% ARS+15% RB ($D_3$) were determined using three Japanese Corriedale wethers in a $3{\times}3$ Latin Square Design. Results showed that DM consumption and organic matter digestibility were highest in $D_3$; but did not promote high protein digestibility, which RB+SBM had effected in URS based-diet. Dry matter intake and OM digestibility were the same for $D_1$ and $D_3$. Solubility of fiber bonds was increased by ammoniation, resulting in higher NDF digestibility. Nitrogen retention and microbial protein yield of rice bran supplemented groups was higher than ARS, but supplementation did not significantly increase efficiency of microbial protein synthesis from ARS which did occur when RB+SBM was added to untreated straw. The quality of ammoniated rice straw could be improved through RB supplementation because of its positive effects on DM digestibility, nitrogen retention and microbial protein yield. However, the addition of RB+SBM to URS resulted to more efficient N utilization.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.115-121
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• 1989

A comparative slaughter feeding experiment with steer calves weighing 280 kg and a concurrent digestion trial with wether lambs was conducted to study the energy value of rice straw as influenced by ammonia treatment and mixing with alfalfa hay. Steers were ad libitum fed one of nine completely mixed experimental diets: basal (high concentrate); 25 or 50% of untreated rice straw (URS) or ammoniated (plastic covered bales, 4.6% $NH_3$ by weight) rice straw (ARS) proportionately replacing part of the basal; a 50:50 % mixture of URS or ARS and alfalfa replacing a proportion of the basal at 25 and 50%. Digestibility of the nine complete diets (pelleted to prevent sorting) was determined with four ad libitum fed lambs. Ammoniation increased crude protein level (from 3.6 to 10.8%) and in vitro dry matter digestibility of the rice straw by 15%. The improvement in DE, NEm and NEg by ammoniation of rice straw was 20, 52 and 117%, respectively. Ammoniation of rice straw fed as 50% of the diet improved gains over the diet containing 50% URS, but no significant influence on animal performance was observed when rice straw was fed at the 25% level. Each 10% addition of URS to basal diet decreased empty body gain of steers by 116 gram per day compared with a decrease of 70 gram per day when rice straw had been ammoniated. There was no beneficial effect of ammoniation when the roughage component of the diet was a 50:50 mixture of rice straw and alfalfa. Ammoniation of straw and inclusion of alfalfa generally increased the concentration of total volatile fatty acids in rumen fluid. Ammoniation resulted in reduced concentrations of acetic and propionic acid, but increased concentration of butyric acid. Digestibility of URS was improved by mixing with alfalfa. However, alfalfa hay did not influence digestibility of ARS. Diets in which ARS replaced the basal mixture at 25 and 50% had higher NEm and NEg values than comparable URS diets. The same pattern was observed in the straw: alfalfa mixtures, but differences between URS and ARS were significant only for the 50% roughage diets.