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Forage Potential of Soybean Straw¹

The nutritive value of soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] straw was studied because of the vast acreage grown in the U.S. and the marked expansion scheduled for this crop in developing countries. Nutritive value was estimated on greenhouse and field-grown plants and plant parts at various stages of maturity by using standard techniques of forage chemical analysis, in vitro dry matter disappearance (IVDMD), and measuring intake and digestibility by ewes.

Cell wall constituents (CWC) and lignin percentage of stems increased progressively from 643 and 10.5% at flowering to 79.4, and 21.5%, respectively, at maturity. Pods increased only up to 52.2% CWC and 8.6% lignin at maturity. The average figures for CWC, acid detergent fiber (ADF), lignin, and crude protein of the mature samples obtained behind a combine were 77.0, 60.0, 16.5 and 4.9%.

Forage yields on hand.harvested, mature, field-grown soybeans were 2262, 4419 and 4076 k.g/ha for ‘Wayne,’ ‘Dare,’. and ‘Hill’ cultivars. The average IVDMD was 25.8% for stems and 59.6% for pods from the mature field-grown soybean straw.

The average consumption of dry matter of a mature straw diet containing minerals and 8.5% soybean meal by 6- to 7-year-old ewes, was 19.8 g/day/kg live weight when ground and 16.7 when fed unground. Digestibility coefficients of unground and ground straw diets, as determined by the lignin ratio technique, averaged 35.9, 49.7, 27.3, 30.6, 50.6, 17.8 and 44.4, 51.2, 28.0, 42.9, 58.8, 21.7% for dry matter, crude protein, CWC, ADF, cellulose, and hemicellulose.

Key Words: Plant development • Lignin • Cellulose • Hemicellulose • Acid detergent fiber • Digestibility • Consumption

² Former graduate student in Animal Science, Univ. of Illinois (now Assistant Professor, Animal Nutrition, J.N. Agr. Univ., Jalapur, India); Former Assistant Professor, Animal Science, Univ. of Illinois (now Associate Professor, Animal Science, Colorado State Univ., Ft. Collins, 80521); Associate Professor, Animal Sci., Univ. of Illinois; and Former Assistant Professor of Crop Production:. Univ. of Illinois (now Soybean Ecologist, DNPEA. Project, Porto Alegre, Brazil); respectively.

Received for publication September 18, 1972.