A note on the effect of different amounts of NaOH application on digestibility by cattle of barley, oats, wheat and maize

Abstract

The effect of different amounts of NaOH sprayed on whole grain on their digestibility by cattle was examined for barley, oats, maize and wheat. For all cereals the digestibility of fibre, dry matter and organic matter (OM) increased with increasing application of NaOH solution but responses were small at the highest levels used. The digestibility of OM was increased from 61 to 83% for barley, from 61 to 76% for oats, from 83 to 89% for maize and from 79 to 92% for wheat. The optimum amount of NaOH required differed between cereals, being about 3·0–3·5% for barley, 4·5–5·0% for oats, and 2·5–3·0% for maize and wheats. With oats, wheat and maize the digestibility was apparently increased more with NaOH treatment than by physical processing.