*Department of Animal Nutrition, College of Veterinary Science, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, 500 030.
Department of Animal Nutrition, College of Veterinary Science, A. A. Agricultural University, Tirupati, 517 502, India.
Online published on 29 December, 2011.
In a 4 x 4 latin square designed digestion-cum-metabolism trial, 4 Nellore Brown lambs were fed to provide DM at 3% of body weight with untreated/urea treated Anjan (Cenchrus ciliaris) grass hay (4% urea, 40% moisture, 10 d) with or without 100g palm kernel cake (PKQ supplementation. Urea treatment increased the CP of Anjan hay from 3.89 to 14.04% on DM basis without affecting the cell-wall constituents. Neither urea treatment nor supplementation of PKC Influenced the total DMI. Both the treatments increased (P<0.01) the digestibilities of CP, CF and cell wall constituents, however, urea treatment performed significantly. Highest N retention was observed with urea treated hay supplemented with PKC. DCP and TDN values of grass hay were increased from 2.1 and 49.2% to 9.4 and 57.7% respectively due to urea treatment. It is concluded that the energy and protein requirements of growing Neilore ram Iambs could be met by urea treated Anjan grass hay (4% urea, 40% moisture, 10d) supplemented with palm kernel cake (100g).
