Ammoniation of Baled Paddy Straw on Ammonia (Urea) Treatment Plant

The performance evaluation of straw treatment plant was carried out on two stacks of paddy straws and the treated bales were covered with polythene sheet either by keeping the stack upside down separately (method no. 1) or on the plant itself (method no. 2) to study the effect of manners of stacking on moisture migration pattern. Economics of ammonia (urea) treatment of baled paddy straw on this plant for herd size of 25 to 100 numbers of cattle was worked out. The actual time required for completion of wetting of baled straw up to the recommended average moisture content of 40% (w.b.) with urea solution at the discharge rate of 35.76 g/min/emitter was approximately 42.23 min. The variation of moisture (50–30%) from top layer to bottom layers was in the safe range of treatment. Moisture retaining efficiency was 90.96%. In method 1 of curing, the moisture content of bottom most layer decreased by 3.35% whereas in top most layer it increased by 9.55%. However, in method no. 2 the moisture content of both, bottom and top most layers increased by 5.53 and 5.88%, respectively. The total cost for construction of the treatment plant was approximately Rs. 54000.00. The cost of treatment of baled paddy straw was Rs. 419, 342, 318 and 303/t for a herd size of 25, 50, 75 and 100 animals, respectively, which indicated that the cost of ammonia (urea) treatment decreased with an increase in the quantity of treated straw in a day.