Effect of feeding untreated wheat straw or ensiled ‎wheat straw treated ‎with NaOH, molasses and wheat grain on performance of lactating ‎dairy ‎cows

In this study, the effects of partial replacement of forage sources with ýuntreated ýwheat straw (UWS) or WS silage (treated ýwith sodium hydroxide, molasses and ýwheat grain; TWSS) were investigated ýon performance of dairy cows. Nine mid-ýlactation Holstein cows ýwere offered one of the three diets, differing in their forage ýsources: 1) ýcontrol (20% alfalfa hay (AH) and 20% corn silage (CS)); ýý2) ýcontaining UWS (13% AH, 13% CS, and 13% UWS; ýand 3) containing TWSS ýý(13% AH, 13% CS, and 14.3% TWSS in a replicated 3 × 3 Latin square ýdesign. ýýApparent digestibilities of control and TWSS diets (74 and ýý73.4%, ýrespectively) were similar (P>0.05), but higher than the UWS diet ýý(P0.05). Milk fat contents in the cows ýfed TWSS diet were ýhigher than those fed control diet (P