Authors: John Olushola Alabi Moses Arigbede Jones Ng’ambi David Norris Emma Shiawoya Sunday Onyekachi
Publish Date: 2013/02/09
Volume: 45, Issue: 6, Pages: 1349-1355
Abstract
An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of ureatreated fibrous diets on the intake nutrient digestibility performance and haematological parameters of Yankasa rams A total of 48 Yankasa rams BW 1000 ± 150 kg 6–8 months old were allocated into four treatment groups in a completely randomised design 12 rams per treatment Animals were placed on complete rations of yam peels maize bran and rice husk treated with 0 10 15 or 20 urea The experiment lasted for 18 weeks Yankasa rams fed with ureatreated diets had higher feed intake 94988 and 93804 g/day for U15 and U20 respectively daily weight gain 22767 and 18100 g/day for U15 and U20 respectively and better feed conversion ratio 417 and 518 for U15 and U20 respectively Rams on ureatreated diets had higher haemoglobin and red blood cell contents and higher weight gains indicating that urea treatment enhanced nutrient supply and utilisation at the tissue level It was concluded that urea treatment of fibrous farm byproducts is a promising feeding strategy especially during the dry season when there is scarcity of highquality forages Addition of 15 urea to roughage diets and farm byproducts to form a total mixed ration may preclude the search for supplements
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