Urea-molasses block supplementation on nutrients digestibility of Yankasa rams fed maize stover

Abstract

Sixty (60) days of feeding trial was conducted to determine the nutrients digestibility of Yankasa rams fed maize Stover as basal diet, seven (7) days adaptation period for twelve growing Yankasa rams aged between 9-12 months was carried out and were subjected to four (4) dietary treatments with three (3) replicates in a completely randomized design (CRD). The four treatments were, T1 (Maize Stover only (control), T2 (molasses 36%, rice offal 43%, urea 5%, cement 7% salt 9% and basal diet)), T3 (molasses 26%, rice offal 43%, urea 15%, cement 9% salt 7% and basal diet) and T4 ( Molasses 40%, rice offal 39%, urea 10%, cement 4% salt 7% and basal diet), to determine feed intake, growth rate, rumen Nitrogen-ammonia (NH3-N) content and PH, the results of dry matter digestibility ranges from 11.22%-67.01%, crude protein digestibility ranges from 78.96–91.97%, fat digestibility ranges from 96.22–97.23%, crude fibre digestibility ranged from 10.32–28.39%, ash was from 51.66–59.56%. The result shows higher concentration of Ammonia (mg/mol) in T4 (19.97mg/100ml), and the lowest was recorded in T1 (14.95mg/100ml). The rumen pH as observed in all the treatments were within the range of 7.15-8.00 with T4 as the highest and T2 having the lowest, these results showed no significant difference at (P>0.05) between the treatments groups. The study revealed that rams in treatment (T2) generally gave a significant difference (P<0.05) higher performance in terms of dry matter intake and live weight gain. From the results obtained in this study, urea-molasses treatment of maize stover improved crude protein contents and digestibility, consequently, an economic decision had been proved in the used of urea-molasses treated maize stover as an animal feed which improved the nitrogen (protein) contents of the treated Stover, energy and soluble carbohydrate. The use of urea-molasses treatment is safe, economical, socially acceptable, and environmentally friendly and can be applied easily on the farm with high probability of being adopted by farmers.