Problems with untreated/ammoniated crop residues

Besides the low energy and protein contents, crop residues generally contain low content of minerals such as Calcium, Phosphorus, Zinc and Copper and the poor availability of these minerals to the animals are again very low that results in the mineral deficiency especially in the areas which are having deficiency of one or more minerals in the soil. Feeding of paddy straw may create a specific disease, locally known as ‘degnala’. Mainly buffaloes suffer from this disease and it adversely affects their productivity and even leads to mortality. The problem of ‘degnala’ due to the feeding of paddy straw is either due to its high selenium content or development of some fungus during its drying process. Another problem encountered with the feeding of ammoniated crop residues especially with paddy straw is the stickiness of dung, which creates the problem in cleaning the barn and animals and even in making the dung-cake.The general, problems associated with straw feeding and the methods for overcoming them.