Abstract
The experiment was conducted for a period of 56 days with twelve Bangladeshi bull calves of average body weight of kg. The calves were divided into 3 groups having 4 animals in each. The animals were fed urea-treated rice straw designated as A) 4% urea-treated rice straw, B) 4% urea+4% soybean-treated rice straw and C) 4% urea+6% soybean-treated rice straw. In addition, all the animals were supplied 2 kg green grass, 350 g Til-oil-cake and 100 g common salt per 100 kg body weight of animals. Straw was treated with 4% urea solution and soybean meal at 4 and 6% were added to treated straw and kept for 48 h in double layer polythene bags under anaerobic condition. Urea treatment improved crude protein (CP) content of rice straw from 2.68 to 8.70% and it was further increased by 10.74 and 12.12% with the addition of 4 and 6% soybean meal. Dry matter (DM) intake (kg) was higher (p
Highlights
About 92 per cent (478.7 million ton) of world straw production is in Asia, including Bangladesh (FAO, 1990)
Its especial importance in Bangladesh lies in the fact that rice straw as dry roughage contributes 46.4% of total dry matter consumed by ruminant animals (Tareque and Saadullah, 1988)
It is important to improve the quality of rice straw to increase efficient utilization by the gastrointestinal tract of ruminants, since 81 percent of total roughage available for ruminant animal feeding in Bangladesh comes from rice straw
Summary
About 92 per cent (478.7 million ton) of world straw production is in Asia, including Bangladesh (FAO, 1990). Its especial importance in Bangladesh lies in the fact that rice straw as dry roughage contributes 46.4% of total dry matter consumed by ruminant animals (Tareque and Saadullah, 1988). It is very low in nitrogen and high in cellulose and hemicellulose contents which are only partly available to animals because of poor digestibility due to the presence of higher amount of inhibitory elements like lignin and silica (Singh and Oosting, 1991). The research was undertaken to improve the nutritive value of rice straw for growing bulls by treating with urea and soybean seed meal containing urease and evaluate feasibility of economic use by farmers
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