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Use of straw and cellulosic wastes and methods of improving their value

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2018

J. F. D. Greenhalgh
J. F. D. Greenhalgh*
Affiliation:
University of Aberdeen, 581 King Street, Aberdeen
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Extract

The most widely-quoted estimates of straw supplies and usage in England and Wales are those of a working party of the National Farmers Union (1973). They assumed the yield of straw to be 2.8 t/ha, and hence 9.3 Mt from 3.4 M ha of cereals in 1972. (The same yield from 3.7 M ha of cereals in the UK would give 10.4 Mt.) Of the 9.3 Mt, 37% was estimated to be burned in the field or ploughed in, 36% used for bedding, 15% used for feed, and 12% used for other purposes. The figure of 2.4 t/ha (1 t/acre) may well be too low. Short (1974) found straw yields at four Experimental Husbandry Farms over several years to be as follows (t/ha): winter wheat 3.71, spring wheat 4.68, spring barley 2.71, and spring oats 4.54. Wood (1974) surveyed wheat crops in Oxfordshire in 1973 and found yields of 3.7 t/ha. The total quantity of straw available is therefore likely to be considerably in excess of 9.3 Mt and could if necessary be increased further by cutting at a lower level. The accuracy of the National Farmers Union estimate of 0.15 × 10.4 = 1.6 Mt used for animal feeding is also questionable, but this amount would — if it contained 6.5 MJ metabolizable energy (ME)/kg dry matter (DM) — be sufficient to provide only about 7% of the maintenance requirements of all cattle in Britain. On a larger scale, Balch (1977) has calculated that if all the straw grown in Europe were improved by chemical treatment it could provide 80 to 90% of the maintenance requirements of Europe's ruminant livestock. World estimates for the production of straw and other fibrous wastes are given by Owen (1976).

Type
Research Article
Information
BSAP Occasional Publication , Volume 3: By-Products and Wastes in Animal Feeding , 1980 , pp. 25 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Production 1980

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References

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