The Rural Voice, 1999-12, Page 13Scrap Book
Unlocking the
feed value
of straw
A scientist.from Michigan
State University (MSU) szys he
has developed a way to unlock the
hidden value of straw in a process
that may be the answer to high
feeding costs for ruminants.
Straw contains sugars and
proteins necessary to sustain life,
but those components are tied up
in tough -to -digest fibre. Over the
years various techniques have
been tried to access the sugars •
locked in straw, including chopp-
ing the straw and treating it with
ammonia. Chopping is expensive
and treating stacks of chopped
straw with ammonia is both
expensive and time consuming. It
is also bad for the environment
with nearly all the ammonia lost to
the atmosphere.
Other attempts at creating an
ammonia treatment failed because
high levels of toxic amino acids
built up in treated material and
ultimately, in the cattle that ate it.
But Bruce Dale, of MSU, said
the process he and colleagues
patented increases the nutritional
value of straw by 300-600 per cent
and leaves little ammonia residue
in the resulting feed. He calls the
process Fibex. Using an extruder,
an auger -type screw that
compresses the straw, and
infusing the compressed straw
with liquid ammonia at 70-90
degrees C, Dale can break down
the fibres in about five minutes.
When fed into the reactor, the
extruder and ammonia -recovery
device, the ammonia, which is
attracted to water, seeks out water
inside the plant fibres. An
explosion erupts when the
ammonia, having been suddenly
released to atmospheric pressure,
escapes from the plant tissues. The
fibres are blown apart. Ammonia
is sent into a water bath for
recovery and feed is released for
cooling in a Targe tumbler.0
— Source: Western Producer
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VC WA RN
1101, Y JW51115
YOUR WA ir
We just wanted to say
"Merry Christmas",
and "thanks" for calling
on,us this past year.
We appreciate your
kind patronage.
frbm Ron, Betty, Paul
and Dianne
K.M.M. FARM
DRAINAGE
Walton
887-6428 527-1633
DECEMBER 1999 9