Preservation of wet rice straw using urea and molasses in monsoon of Bangladesh

Abstract

An experiment of treated and ensiled wet rice straw with urea and molasses was performed to explore the chemical composition, physical quality, in vitro digestibility and its potentiality as a quality feed for ruminants. In this experiment, plastic containers were used to preserve chopped wet rice straw under airtight condition based on the treatment as T1 (wet rice straw only), T2 (straw with 5% molasses), T3 (straw with 5% urea), T4 (straw with 5% urea and 5% molasses) and T5 (straw with 10% urea and 5% molasses) to analyze chemical composition, physical quality, metabolizable energy (ME) content, in vitro organic matter digestibility (OMD) and in vitro gas production (IVGP) at five different ensiling times of 0, 30, 45, 60 and 90 days. The physical quality (color, smell, softness characteristics) of wet rice straw was improved with urea and molasses treatment. Treatments T5 was found better as there was no fungal growth till 90 days of ensiling. The addition of urea and molasses improved the physical quality, nutritive value and preservation quality of wet rice straw. Urea and molasses treated and ensiled (T5) straw showed better color, nutritional quality, softness and longer preservation capacity compared with all treatments followed by T4, T2 and T3. The crude protein (CP) content was increased (P<0.05) but the crude fibre (CF), dry matter (DM), ash contents and ether extract (EE) were decreased (P<0.05) in all of the treatments (T2, T3, T4 and T5) compared to control (T1). The OMD, IVGP and ME contents were increased in all of the treatments (T2, T3, T4 and T5) compared to control (T1). The highest OMD, IVGP and ME values were observed in treatment T5 and the lowest values were in control (T1) Through the Consideration of all the chemical and physical properties, among all of the treatments, 10% urea and 5% molasses are found acceptable for the preservation of rice straw. Thus, environment friendly and cost effective feed can be formulated.