Feed shortage is the greatest obstacle to Iranian livestock industry. Historically, crop residues mainly cereal straw has been very important feed resources for ruminants during late summer and cold seasons in Iran. The digestibility and voluntary feed intake of these fibrous residues are quite low. The feeding value of fibrous co-products can be upgraded by chemical treatment (Galletti, 1991). Norea as a cheap locally produced alkali containing mainly lime and sulphur with higher solubility. Although the alkali is used for removing superfluous hair in human hygiene but it might also be effective for cell wall degradation in fibrous feeds. There was no any information on utilization of this alkali. Therefore, the reason for undertaking this experiment was to test this suggestion.
Genetic variation in the feeding value of alfalfa genotypes evaluated from experiments with dairy cows