Rice straw is OK feed when baled while still moist

Less than 5 percent of the rice stubble produced in the Sacramento Valley is made into rice straw. Traditionally, rice straw has been considered to be a low nutrient feed, but new research that has made rice straw into strawlage is changing that.

Peter Robinson, University of California Cooperative Extension specialist with the Department of Animal Science, has been doing the research with Glenn Nader, UCCE farm advisor.

Rice straw has been used historically in California as a "desperation forage" because of its low nutritional value, Robinson said.

In the past, it has been put up dry in the field and baled, he said.

"We know from our research that rice straw, unlike other forages, suffers a very steep decline in digestibility when it dries," he said.

Anywhere from 50 percent to 60 percent moisture works for baling rice straw to make strawlage, but not over 80 percent because of problems with botulism, Nader said.

Ron LaGrande of Williams raises rice and cattle, and he fed strawlage to his cattle for the first time this past winter.

While the cows ate it more so than conventional rice straw, the strawlage is a hassle, LaGrande said.

"You've got to bale it with a lot of moisture, and you've got to get it covered, and you've got to do something for the mold. It's hard to deal with, hard to handle, hard to move once you get it into the strawlage because it's got so much moisture in it," LaGrande said, but the price makes it attractive.

LaGrande said he will put up more strawlage this year.

"I didn't put up that much in 2013. I just wanted to try it because I didn't know just how this was going to work. I didn't have much faith in it. I'm glad I did what I did because it worked out very well," he said.

Mold can be a concern, and Nader used a product called Crop Saver that is a chemical application used at baling to preserve the straw and prevent mold.

Farmer Herb Holzapfel of Willows raises rice, and he harvested his rice straw and made strawlage for the first time last year.

Holzapfel baled his rice straw at 65 percent moisture, and he said he plans to use Crop Saver in the future.

"You can put up high moisture hay (with Crop Saver) and not have it go bad," he said, adding it will cost a little more to use Cost Saver, but the payoff is no mold problems.

Holzapfel also attributed the lack of mold he's had to the fact he uses the fungicide Quadris on his rice at panicle initiation.

Nader agreed it looked like treating the rice with Quadris equaled less mold in the strawlage.

The strawlage gets as hot as 130 degrees by day two, Nader said.

"This scares the living daylights out of people," Nader said, but he pointed out that it's 50 percent moisture, so it would have to boil off all the moisture before it could combust.

Nader said he hasn't had any problems with combustion and after about five to six days the temperature goes down to 90 degrees.

LaGrande had concerns when temperatures shot up in his strawlage.

"She goes through a hell of a sweat, and it gets hot in a hurry. I thought it might be a concern for fire, but there's so much moisture in it, I don't think it can. The water just runs out of it," LaGrande said.

The temperatures do decrease after a few days, LaGrande confirmed.

"It goes down, but there's some of those bales in the middle of that thing, they hold that temperature for months," he said.

LaGrande didn't take the strawlage to the hills because he was afraid it would combust, but this year he will because it will be easier to feed, having it closer to the animals.

Nader estimated the price for strawlage will be less than $13 per bale. He said he doesn't know what prices will be for rice straw this year.

"Even if you were at $40 for a ton, plus what your costs are for tarping, it's still going to be a very cheap feed, comparatively," Nader said.

While the majority of the rice is grown in the Sacramento Valley, there is about 7,000 acres in the delta, Nader said.

"Certainly, people could take advantage of it down there and put it up for strawlage," he said.

Baling rice straw can make sense for rice growers, Nader said, but if they're in a potassium-short area, taking off the straw has a dramatic impact versus incorporating or burning it.

"There's some cultural costs that rice growers need to be aware of when they go into this," Nader said, noting that replacing potassium is a very expensive cost to add that back into the soil.

Nader advised producers not to wait if they want to use strawlage this year.

"July would be the time you need to start sitting down with rice growers and talking about making arrangements for your rice straw. Don't wait until September and think you're just going to waltz in and buy it," he said.

Holzapfel is already getting calls from other producers to bale rice straw for them.

There wasn't much rice straw baled last year, but there's going to be more this year, Holzapfel said.

Strawlage can't be shipped a long distance because of the high moisture content, but it can be used locally, he said.

"Putting up rice straw in this way really increases its nutritional value, and it creates a really practical alternative forage for guys in the north valley," Robinson said.

Robinson said, nutritionally speaking, strawlage gets a thumbs-up at this point, and the animals "outperformed our best-case scenario."

Nader is putting together a tutorial for ranchers on how to make strawlage that he hopes to have available in April.

(Kathy Coatney is a reporter in Corning. She may be contacted at kacoatney@gmail.com.)