Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily (Reporter Xie Huibian) news: On January 8, 2025, reporters learned from Shihezi University that Professor Sun Xinwen's team at the College of Animal Science and Technology of the university, after 14 years of relentless exploration, has developed a technology for the comprehensive utilization of cotton stalk micro-storage feed. To date, this technology has been implemented in 57 demonstration sites across Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, with a cumulative promotion of 350,000 tons of cotton stalk micro-storage feed, bringing direct economic benefits of approximately 50 million yuan (about 6.81 million U.S dollars) to farmers and herdsmen.

Xinjiang is China's largest and one of the world's significant cotton-producing regions, with an annual production of over 10 million tons of cotton stalks. Compared to wheat, corn, and other crop stalks, the overall utilization rate of cotton stalks is relatively low. According to incomplete statistics, more than 60 percent of cotton stalks in Xinjiang are mainly directly shredded and returned to the fields.

There are both advantages and disadvantages to directly shredding cotton stalks and returning them to the field. This way can increase soil organic matter, improve soil properties, and enhance soil fertility. However, factors such as incomplete decomposition and low decomposition efficiency of cotton stalks can lead to increased pests and diseases in cotton fields, poor seedling emergence rates, and frequent occurrences of weak and yellow seedlings.

Photo shows professor Sun Xinwen from College of Animal Science and Technology at Shihezi University in Shihezi City, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, monitors feed-related data. (Photo offered by Shihezi University)

Exploring more efficient utilization models for cotton stalks has become a key focus and difficulty for researchers in Xinjiang in recent years. Currently, there are multiple exploration efforts in China for the utilization of crop stalks, including using them as fertilizer, feed, energy sources, substrates, and raw materials. In Xinjiang, researchers have also explored the utilization of cotton stalks as substrates, fertilizer, and raw materials.

Focusing on addressing the shortage and high prices of forage in Xinjiang, Professor Sun Xinwen's team has been dedicated since 2010 to researching the production of feed from cotton stalks through the use of specialized microbial strains and auxiliaries for micro-storage. The cotton stalks undergo fermentation in pits or wrapped packages, resulting in feed with key indicators such as free gossypol content far below the national feed hygiene standards and crude protein content higher than that of corn stalks, wheat straw, rice straw, and other materials.

"Years of research and experiments have shown that forage produced through cotton stalk micro-storage technology has higher nutritional value and is cheaper than traditional feed," said Sun Xinwen. "It costs 60 percent of the price of commonly used corn silage among livestock farmers in Xinjiang. Moreover, the crude protein content, one of the main nutritional indicators, ranges from nine percent to 13 percent, which is 50 percent higher than corn silage."

"This technology has solved the problem of converting cotton stalks into feed, effectively addressing the shortage of forage in Xinjiang, and can also increase the income of cotton farmers," said Fang Wenbin, deputy director of the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Workstation in Shihezi City, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

"Compared to traditional straw incorporation methods, using this technology not only saves the cost of stalk chopping but also increases the efficiency of residual film recovery by 30 percent," said Xue Guolei, a cotton farmer from Manas County of Shihezi City, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. "After comprehensive calculations, it can save nearly 40 yuan per mu (1mu equals 667 square meters) in expenses."

"We will continue to optimize the process technology and intensify efforts in the application of research results, increasing the number of demonstration sites to over 100. In the next five years, one thousand villages and ten thousand livestock farmers will benefit from the comprehensive utilization technology of cotton stalk micro-storage feed. This will not only provide livestock farmers with low-cost forage but also truly improve farming efficiency," said Sun Xinwen.

Moreover, Sun Xinwen's team's technology has been invited to Kazakhstan for demonstration, and in the future, it is expected to go beyond Xinjiang, China, and benefit more people in countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative.

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