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Matching Livestock Systems with Available Resources |
MEKARN Regional Conference 2007 |
The objectives of the study were to investigate the effects of different nitrogen sources associated with energy on feed intake, digestibility, nitrogen retention and live weight change of growing swamp buffaloes. In a cross-over design, the treatments included urea and molasses (UM), cotton seed cake and molasses (CM), urea, sesbania leaves and molasses (USM), urea and sesbania (US), urea, cotton seed cake and molasses (UCM) and urea and cotton seed cake (UC). The buffaloes were fed natural grasses at a level of 0.80% body weight (DM basis), while rice straw was fed ab libitum. The average of crude protein content in the diet was 9.0% and the ratio of non-protein nitrogen and protein nitrogen was 2:1; molasses was supplemented at a level of 1.0g per kg body weight of the buffaloes. Each experimental period was two weeks with the first week for adaptation while the second week for getting samples.
There were no differences in feed intake among the treatments, however the rice straw intake was significantly different (p<0.05) with the higher values for the UC and US treatments. There were no differences in apparent digestibility of DM, OM, NDF and ADF or in nitrogen retention among the treatments; however, there was an indication that supplementing with energy from molasses led to increased feed intake, nitrogen retention and daily weight gain.
The conclusion was that a combination of different nitrogen sources (fermentable N and bypass protein) and readily fermentable carbohydrate (molasses) will improve performance of growing buffaloes.