Effect of protein supplementation and urea treatment on utilization of maize stover by Red Maasai sheep

Abstract

Six Red Maasai sheep were used to investigate the effects of urea treatment and cotton seed cake supplementation of maize stover on intake, digestibility and rumen fermentation parameters. The basal feeds were Rhodes grass (Chloris gayana) hay (H), untreated maize (Zea mays) stover (US) and treated maize stover (TS), each of which was supplemented with 100 g of cotton seed cake (CSC) to make H+CSC, US+CSC and TS+CSC. These were offered over four feeding periods in a completely randomized block design, with periods serving as blocks. Hay and US treatments had similar intakes, digestibility, ruminal fluid volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentrations and pH. Urea treatment of the stover increased the digestibility of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and cellulose as well as the rumen ammonia nitrogen (AN) concentration. Cotton seed cake supplementation increased DM, OM and CP digestibility in US from 445 to 614 g/kg, 475 to 633 g/kg and 308 to 604 g/kg, respectively and VFA concentration in the rumen from 31 to 196 mmol/L. Supplementation of treated stover, increased the AN concentration (137 vs. 234 mg/l) rumen in the rumen content with no effect on nutrient digestibility and VFA concentration. The pH of the ruminal content for the diets ranged from 6.83 to 7.12. The trends of rumen AN and VFA for supplemented diets showed a gradual rise to a maximum three hours post-feeding, followed by a decrease in their respective concentrations. It was concluded that urea treatment and CSC supplementation of stover increased its utilization but supplementation of treated stover with CSC was not effective.

Urea treated maize straw for small-scale dairy systems in the highlands of Central Mexico

“…In this work, untreated maize straw had an in vitro DM digestibility of 603.5 (SEM±14.4) g/kg, whilst the urea treated maize straw had an in vitro DM digestibility of 710.0 (SEM±1.53) g/kg representing a 17.7% increase in digestibility. Woyengo et al (2004) report a 46% increase in maize straw digestibility, although the digestibility of their untreated maize straw was significantly lower than the initial digestibility of untreated straw herein reported. Oji et al (2007), using maize straw with a better initial digestibility, report 15.3% higher digestibility when treated with urea; and Ramírez et al (2007) report an improvement on the DM digestibility of urea treated maize straw of 14.6% over the untreated control.…”

“…The treatment with ammonia or urea has the added advantage of a better Nitrogen supply, which enhances ruminal digestion (Woyengo et al 2004;Oji et al 2007;Ramírez et al 2007). In this work, untreated maize straw had an in vitro DM digestibility of 603.5 (SEM±14.4) g/kg, whilst the urea treated maize straw had an in vitro DM digestibility of 710.0 (SEM±1.53) g/kg representing a 17.7% increase in digestibility.…”

Protein Supplementation Improves Performance of Lambs Fed Low-Quality Forage

“…This might be related to when protein degradation exceeds the rate of carbohydrate fermentation, large amounts of nitrogen compounds can be excreted via urine and feces. [22] The lambs' performance was improved by the addition of SMB to their diets. These results agree with those reached by other researchers [20,23] who reported that the ADG and the BW gain of different sheep breeds that consumed higher levels of protein supplements were enhanced by protein supplementation.…”

Urea : Manfaat Pada Ruminansia

“…Kombinasi tersebut mampu meningkatkan kadar protein kasar menjadi 11% dan menurunkan kadar silika menjadi 11,97%. Sedangkan penelitian Woyengo et al (2004) pada domba Red Maasai dengan fistula rumen menunjukkan bahwa penambahan urea dan bungkil biji kapas pada limbah tanaman jagung mampu meningkatkan kadar protein kasar dan menurunkan kandungan NDF. Lebih lanjut, penelitian tersebut juga menunjukkan bahwa kecernaan bahan kering, bahan organik, dan kadar protein kasar mengalami peningkatan.…”