Effect of Feeding Lime Treated Rice Straw on Intake and Digestibility of Nutrient and Serum Minerals Content

Thirty crossbred heifers were divided into 6 groups of 5 animals in each. They were fed on iso-nitrogettous diets made from untreated (US) Tor straw/treated with 2.5% urea (T₂) saturated lime-water (20 g available lime 91 water @ 301/kgstraw) (T₃)LTS₁ or lime suspension (0.2S kgin 181/kgstraw) (T₄) LTS₂. with supplement of conventional (T₃ & T₄) or Ca-free (T₅ and T₆) mineral mixtures and their performance compared. The digestibility coefficients of CP and hemicellu-lose (P<0.05) were higher for LTS diets as compared to untreated straw based diets. Intake of DM and DCP on T₄ was significantly higher (P<0.05) compared to US and LTS based T₅. Significantly higher foody weight gains were obtained with LTS (T₃ and T₆) except in case of T₄ compared to US diets. The serum inorganic P, Zn and Cu contents were reduced as a result of feeding LTS, while the blood serum Ca content remained unaffected. It is concluded that straw quality could be improved by the lime treatment technique described in the present paper.