In direct contrast to our hypothesis, it seems clear that as the extent of maceration was increased between years 1 and 3, the extent of the absolute decline in voluntary DM intake due to maceration increased,concomitant with a small increase in the efficiency of utilization of DM intake for BW gain.
Although these differences skirt statistical significance in many cases and, in general, are far too small to have practical utility, they provide clear evidence that maceration was not an effective means to upgrade the nutritional quality of rice straw, even this rice straw that had not yet fully dried when it was macerated,and so would not be expected to suffer the sharp decrease in voluntary intake demonstrated by Sharif (1984).