CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF MAIZE COBS TREATED WITH WOOD ASH EXTRACT

ABSTRACT

Maize cobs are a by-product of the maize crop frequently used for the production of livestock feed in all parts of the world. They are feed ingredients of low nutritive value, roughly similar to straw or poor hay, however, adding certain agricultural residues in the livestock feed rations improves the nutritive value of the feed. This study was carried out to evaluate the chemical composition of maize cobs treated with wood ash extract as well as the ability of wood ash to treat or breakdown the lignin content in maize cob. The experiment was made up of treatments such as 0 (control), T1 (2.5kg WAE/12hrs), T2 (2.5kg WAE/18hrs), T3 (2.5kg WAE/24hrs); T4 (5kg WAE/12hrs), T5 (5kg WAE/18hrs), T6 (5kg WAE/24hrs); and T7 (7.5kg WAE/12hrs), T8 (7.5kg WAE/18hrs), T9 (7.5kg WAE/24hrs). The analyzed data was tested for significant differences using table of Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and mean comparison was carried out using Duncan Multiple Range Test (DMRT). All tests were carried out at 5% probability level (p < 0.05). The result on crude fibre (CF) content showed that there were no significant differences (p > 0.05) amongst treatments except for T7 which attained the highest value and T5 which recorded the lowest value of 12.11% and 10.70% respectively, however, T5 recorded the highest NFE value (68.74%). Higher crude protein (CP) content was recorded in the control treatment (12.25%), on the other hand, T5 attained the least CP value (5.25%). Treatment with 5kg WAE/18hrs (T5) recorded the highest dry matter (DM) value of 91.48% and the highest ash content as well as fat content was recorded in T9 and T6 respectively.