Utilization of Cotton Plant Residues by Ruminants

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Abstract
Cotton plant residues can serve as viable feedstuffs for ruminants. Cotton gin trash is available in large quantities, but due to its slow rate of decomposition, processing by physical and chemical means is required for its consideration as an economical source of dietary energy. Physical processing, in itself, offers little towards increasing energy availability in cotton gin trash. Chemical treatments have been shown to be beneficial in allowing more energy to be derived from cotton gin trash by ruminants. However, the response to chemical treatment of cotton gin trash varies with both the chemical and its concentration, relative to cotton gin trash. The more caustic alkali, sodium hydroxide, has shown greater effectiveness than ammonium hydroxide. In growing ruminants, cotton gin trash treated with anhydrous ammonia resulted in performance similar to that of animals receiving N from soybean meal. Severe treatment of cotton gin trash with strong oxidizing agents has shown more benefit than the strong alkali. No commercial method is as yet available for treatment with strong oxidizing agents in quantities similar to those used in treated crop residues with sodium hydroxide. Caution must also be exercised in chemically treating crop residues because some techniques develop chemical by-products that may be deleterious to animals. Copyright © 1987. American Society of Animal Science . Copyright 1987 by American Society of Animal Science