EFFECTS OF MIXING BROILER LITTER WITH WHEAT-STRAW BEFORE DEEP-STACKING AND ALKALINE HYDROGEN-PEROXIDE TREATMENT ON FEED-INTAKE, DIGESTIBILITY AND PERFORMANCE IN MATURE WETHERS

Mature wethers (32, 17 mo of age and 41+/-1.3 kg body weight) were use d in an 84-d experiment to determine effects on feed intake, digestibi lity and performance of substituting deep-stacked broiler fitter for w heat straw, alkaline hydrogen peroxide (HP) treatment of litter and (o r) straw and stacking of bitter separately vs mixed with straw. Diets were offered once daily and were comprised primarily of straw (S), str aw treated with HP (TS) straw plus stacked litter (1:1, dry matter; SL) HP-treated straw plus stacked bitter (TS+L), straw plus litter trea ted with HP before stacking (S+TL), HP-treated straw plus litter treat ed with HP before deep-stacking (TS+TL) straw mixed with litter before stacking (SL) and straw mixed with litter then treated with HP before stacking (TSL). Straw and untreated lifter (after deep-stacking) were 5 and 21% ash, 87 and 44% ash-free neutral detergent fiber, 6 and 33% crude protein and 12 and 8% acid detergent lignin, respectively. Stra w diets (S and TS) were supplemented (dry matter) with soybean. meal a nd urea (0.3 and 0.029% of body weight, respectively) and lasalocid (1 mg/kg body weight) was added to all diets. Over the 84-d period, orga nic matter intake was 0.81, 1.02, 0.77, 0.98, 0.79, 0.75, 0.83 and 1.0 0 kg/d (SE 0.078) and daily body weight change was -65, 9, -52, 5, -22 , -53, -46 and -16 g/d (SE 18.3) for S, TS, S+L, TS+L, S+TL, TS+TL, SL and TSL, respectively. During wk, 5, organic matter digestibility was 48.1, 58.5, 39.1, 60.0, 51.7, 62.3, 49.2 and 54.7% (SE 1.79) and neut ral detergent fiber digestibility was 46.7, 60.6, 41.2, 66.6, 52.9, 68 .2, 51.6 and 57.6% (SE 2.64) for S, TS, S+L, TS+L, S+TL, TS+TL, SL and TSL, respectively. In conclusion, when straw was supplemented with ni trogen, partial substitution with litter did not improve feed intake o r change in, body weight of mature wethers regardless of HP treatment or time of feedstuff mixing.