Performance of Murrah Buffalo Heifers Fed Ammoniated Wheat Straw Based Complete Diets with Different Sources of Nitrogen

Twelve Murrah buffalo heifers (16 months 221.25 kg vvt.) were randomly divided into three comparable groups on the basis of their body weight and offered three isonitrogenous and isocaloric complete diets ad lib. All the complete diets consisted 40 parts urea treated (4% urea and 50% moisture) wheat straw. Complete diets 1, 2 and 3 were supplemented with deoiled groundnut cake, undecorticated cotton seed cake and deoiled mustard cake as protein supplements, respectively alongwith other ingredients. Vitablend was added in all the three diets @ 25 g/100 kg diet. The experimental feeding continued for 120 days, followed by a metabolism trial. The DM intake/100 kg body weight and g/kg W^0.75 basis was 2.35±0.07, 2.27±0.12 and 2.04±0.09 kg and 96.20±3.12, 93.10±4.93 and 83.26±3.67 g In groups I, II and III, respectively, and the variation amongs groups was not significant. However digestibility coefficients of CP, NDF (P<0.05) and EE, cellulose and hemicel-lulose (P<0.01) differed significantly. The nitrogen and phosphorus balances (P<0.05) and the calcium balance (P<0.01) were significantly higher in group I. Higher body weight gain was also obtained in group I though values did not differ significantly among the groups.