In recent years, interest in the use of chemically treated crop by-products, such as straw, as animal feed has been increasing. So far, most treatment methods which have been developed involve highly technical procedures requiring skilled labour, complex machinery and hence, large amounts of capital. The aim of the work reported here was to assess the feasibility of using a simple dip method to treat straw with both NaOH (to improve digestibility and hence intake) and urea (to increase the nitrogen content) and subsequently to investigate the effects of feeding this straw to young goats. Results were compared with those obtained for commercially-treated and untreated straw.

The dip treatment method involved immersing small bales (density = 69kg/m3 ) in a NaOH (llg/dm3) and urea (7g/dm3) solution for 45 minutes followed by draining for 2 hours and storage for 3-6 days prior to feeding (unchopped).