Utilization of Urea and Urease Treated Rice Straw by Indigenous Growing Cattle

Title

Utilization of Urea and Urease Treated Rice Straw by Indigenous Growing Cattle

Author 

M. Akter, M. Asaduzzaman, M.M. Hossain, L. Asad.

Abstract

The experiment was conducted to study the effect of treatment of rice straw with urea and a urease containing midden soil on the chemical composition of treated rice straw, feed intake of the animals, nutrients digestibility, body weight gain, feed conversion efficiency and overall economy of feeding for a period of 105 days. Twelve indigenous growing cattle (live weight 130.00±1.67 kg) were selected and divided into four groups having three animals in each group. The animals received 3.0% urea + 2.0% midden soil treated rice straw (group A), 3.0% urea + 3.0% midden soil treated rice straw (group B), 3.0% urea + 4.0% midden soil treated rice straw (group C) and 3.0% urea + 5.0% midden soil treated rice straw (group D). In addition, all the animals were supplied with 2 kg green grass, 450 g concentrate mixture and 40 g salt per 100 kg body weight. Treatment of rice straw with 3.0% urea+ 2.0% midden soil lead to an increase in crude protein content from 3.30 to 7.08%, which was further increased by 7.40, 7.90 and 8.14% if treated with 3.0% urea + 3.0% midden soil, 3.0% urea + 4.0% midden soil and 3.0% urea + 5.0% midden soil, respectively. The total live weight gain by the end of the experimental period (105 days) was 39.00, 42.50, 46.50 and 49.00 kg for groups A, B, C and D respectively. The addition of 5.0% midden soil as a urease source with 3.0% urea (D) treated rice straw not only significantly (P<0.01) increased the coefficient of digestibility of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), crude fibre (CF), ether extracts (EE) and nitrogen free extract (NFE), but also significantly (P<0.05) increased the coefficient of digestibility of (OM) compared to treatment of rice straw with 3.0% urea + 4.0% midden soil (C), 3.0% urea + 3.0% midden soil (B) or 3.0% urea + 2.0% midden soil (A). Digestible organic matter (DOM), digestible crude protein (DCP), digestible crude fibre (DCF), digestible nitrogen free extract (DNFE) and total digestible nutrients (TDN) contents were significantly (P<0.01) higher in diet D, compared to diets A, B and C. Total profit of meat production in group D was significantly higher (P<0.01) than in groups A, B and C.


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