Discerning the variation in fungal-treated wheat straw as ruminant feed

Abstract

a colonization time. b determined by Van Soest et al. (1991) method. c measure of ruminal degradability (in vitro gas production or organic matter digestibility). Research justification This research was part of the "More Meat and Milk from Straw" project (see Textbox 1.2). The unique capability of fungi during their vegetative growth stage is being exploited in this project to improve the degradability of wheat straw, which has a relatively poor nutritional value for ruminants. The outcome of this thesis will contribute to a better understanding of variation among different fungal strains in changing the nutrient composition and structural characteristics of the wheat straw. Furthermore, these phenotypic variations will benefit fungal breeder in selecting strains with the desired traits, to produce a superior strain with a better bioprocess capability.

The value of corn stover for Chinese dairy farms

“…Over the past decades, more than 40 fungal species have been selected to treat crop residues, among which wheat straw is the most treated substrate (Nayan et al, 2018a).…”

“…Ceriporiopsis subvermispora is the most used species to improve the degradability of crop residues, followed by L. edodes, Pleurotus ostreatus and P. eryngii (Nayan et al, 2018a). Different fungal species behave differently when they are applied to treat diverse biomasses.…”