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ABSTRACT
Ruminant animals are economically important in the agricultural production. However, the level of ruminant animal production has been quite low compared to its demand. A major cause of this low level of production has been the shortage of feeds both in quality and quantity. In this research, rice straw which is a by-product from the harvest of rice and also a feed material to these ruminants was mixed with palm oil sludge biodegraded with Pleurotus tuberregium for 6weeks in order to observe its effect on the chemical composition, in vitro gas production and dry matter digestibility. The experiment was done using three treatments which were 0% Rice Straw, 25% Rice Straw and 100% Rice Straw through a biodegradation period of 2, 4 and 6 weeks. Purposeful sampling was used in collection of the rice straw, palm oil sludge and their mixture at 2, 4 and 6 weeks respectively. The samples were oven dried to constant weight and milled to uniform powder using a blending machine. The powder was left to cool as a result of the heat from blending and then stored in an airtight container prior to use for the chemical composition analysis and in vitro experiment.
The chemical composition and in vitro fermentation characteristics potential of biodegraded rice straw and palm oil sludge mixture at 2, 4 and 6 weeks periods of biodegradation were determined and the data obtained was analyzed statistically. The data analysis shows that there was no significant variation between the chemical composition, cumulative gas production characteristics and post in vitro gas production characteristics of the treatments. Hence, it can be used in increasing the crude protein content and digestibility as a result of the proliferation of Pleurotus tuberregium and in reduction of methane gas production in ruminants.
