Each year, millions of tons of agricultural residues such as wheat straw are produced worldwide. In this paper, we describe ongoing efforts to solve technological, infrastructural, and economic challenges to using this straw for bioenergy and bioproducts. Among these challenges, silica in straw forms a low-melting point eutectic with potassium, causing excessive slagging deposits in boilers. Th...

this study was conducted to evaluate the effect of feeding treated wheat straw with urea and whey on fattening lambs performance. about 4.5 kg urea and 1.5 kg salt were dissolved in 40 l water and mixed with 30 l of whey. the solution was spread over 100 kg chopped wheat straw. thirty two male lambs were randomly divided into four feeding groups to compare performance with diets based on barley...

This experiment compared the effects of sand and straw bedding in free stalls on resting time, cleanliness, hock injuries, and hoof health of dairy cows and tested whether cow preferences for a bedding material depended on the familiarity with the material. A total of 52 dairy cows were kept either on straw bedded concrete stalls or sand stalls for at least 21 wk. The lying behavior was observe...

Cultivation of Pleurotus ostreatus on different substrates such as rice straw, rice straw + wheat straw, rice straw+ paper, sugarcane bagasse and sawdust of alder was investigated. All the substrates except rice straw were supplemented with 10% rice bran. The substrate without supplement was considered as control. The effects of various substrates on mycelial growth, colonization time, primordi...

Sixteen rams (mean age: 13 mo; mean live weight: 40.0 ± 2.4 kg) were randomly allotted to four dietary treatments in a completely randomized design (4 rams per treatment). Diets (dry matter basis) contained 65% concentrate and 35% alfalfa hay (control diet, T1), 35% wheat straw (T2), 35% barley straw (T3) or 35% maize straw (T4). Total-tract apparent digestibility for dry matter, organic matter...

In the EU, pigs must have permanent access to manipulable materials such as straw, rope, wood, etc. Long straw can fulfil this function, but can increase labour requirements for cleaning pens, and result in problems with blocked slatted floors and slurry systems. Chopped straw might be more practical, but what is the effect on pigs' behaviour of using chopped straw instead of long straw? Commer...

The transcription patterns of [FeFe]-hydrogenase genes (hydA), which encode the enzymes responsible for H2 production, were investigated during rice straw decomposition in paddy soil using molecular biological techniques. Paddy soil amended with and without rice straw was incubated under anoxic conditions. RNA was extracted from the soil, and three clone libraries of hydA were constructed using...

Sixteen rams (mean age: 13 mo; mean live weight: 40.0 ± 2.4 kg) were randomly allotted to four dietary treatments in a completely randomized design (4 rams per treatment). Diets (dry matter basis) contained 65% concentrate and 35% alfalfa hay (control diet, T1), 35% wheat straw (T2), 35% barley straw (T3) or 35% maize straw (T4). Total-tract apparent digestibility for dry matter, organic matter...

The goal of this study was to determine the comparative properties of dry-formed medium density fiberboards (MDF) made from renewable biomass (wheat and soybean straw) and those from conventional soft wood fiber. The MDF properties evaluated were modulus of elasticity, modulus of rupture, internal bond strength, thickness swell, and screw holding capacity. The results show that MDF made from wh...