Agricultural Biomass Resources in the Application of Ecological Agriculture: Research on the Conversion Efficiency of Crop Residues/Straw

Abstract

Crop residues are pretty rich in China. However, the utilization ratio of crop residues is very low, many of which are burnt on the field. Burning crop residues not only pollutes the environment, but also wastes bio-resources. It is a reasonable way to process crop residues into high-quality forages and then feed animals like cattle. In our experiment, we randomly selected 15 Charolaise beef cattle and divided them into three groups, then fed them with different forages (micro-deposited fresh crop residues + peanut stems; maize stalk + peanut stems;micro-deposited fresh crop residues). The purpose of this experiment is to study the feed intake efficiency, the effect of different forages on animal growth performance (weight, length, height), and conversion efficiency from crop residues to animals weight in the process of beef cattle feeding. The result demonstrated that the best feed conversion was noted in cattle fed with micro-deposited fresh crop residues (MDFR) together with some amount of fine forage. Some 9.0 kg forages (3.8kg fine forages +5.2kg coarse forages) can be converted into 1 kg live beef cattle. The treatment of MDFR + peanut stems (PS) ranked the second place, with 9.4kg forages (2.6kg fine forages +6.8kg coarse forages) converting into 1 kg live cattle. However, MDFR + PS obviously showed the highest accumulative gain with larger feed intake among the three different treatments. Of all the conversion mentioned above, it needs 1.6kg grain to increase 1kg beef cattle, and the percentage of corn grain in all food of beef cattle is no more than 20%. For the net economic incomes, MDFR + PS yielded the highest income (1722 yuan/cattle),then came corn stalk (CS) +PS (1598 yuan/cattle), MDFR the lowest (1473 yuan/cattle). Our findings suggest that, it is an ideal alternative for farmer to feed their beef cattle with MDFR + PS. This study is the first to report crop residues/animal weight ratio, which helps to grope for a feasible approach of utilizing crop residues in China.