Authors : Nazir Ahmad , Hamayun Khan , Mohammad Saleem , Sir Zamin Khan and Ali Mohammad Bahrami
Abstract: To investigate the effect of feeding urea treated sorghum stover with or without cattle manure on the growth performance of cow calves, the current study was conducted in three phases. In phase-I two stacks of urea treated sorghum stover, 1000kg each, were prepared. One stack was added with 5% of cattle maure as source of urease enzyme. In phase II, a feeding trial was conducted using 9 calves in ithree different groups. Three experimental rations viz., ration I, II and III were prepared and allotted to group A, B and C respectively. Ration I was the control and comprise of 50% utreated sorghum stover and 50% concentrates on dry matter basis. Ration II consisted of equal amounts of urea treated sorghum stover and concentrate only dry matter basis while ration III had half the dry matter from urea treated sorghum stover with added cattle manure and the rest from concentrates. In the third phase the digestion trial was carried out from the last 10 days. The dry matter intake was different (P<0.01) among the groups. Average weigh gain of calves in group A, B and C were 33.47, 30.42 and 37.68kg, respectively and were not affected (<0.05) by the ration. The average feed efficiency values for calves fed ration-I, ration-II and ration-III were 7.03, 6.17 and 5.33, respectively and were not different (P<0.05). However the digestion trial showed a higher digestibility for ration-III, followed by ration-II for dry matter, organic matter, crude protein, crude fiber, either extract and nitrogen free extract. The present study indicates that added cattle manure had a positive effect on the overall digestibility of sorghum stover.
Nazir Ahmad , Hamayun Khan , Mohammad Saleem , Sir Zamin Khan and Ali Mohammad Bahrami , 2004. Effect of Urea Treated Sorghum Stover with or Without Cattle Manure on its Intake and Digestibility by the Growing Ruminants . Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 3: 198-201.