A study on the effect of cereal stubbles enrichment in the nutrition of Shall ewes.

This experiment was conducted in two phases to study the prospect of nutritive value improvement of barley crop residues at field surface during two years. At first year, after the barley crop was harvested by combine, twenty seven 27 experimental plats was bordered and divided into 9 treatment groups. In a completely randomized design with a 3×3 factorial experiment 0.0, 5.2 and 5 percent urea each with 0.0, 3 and 6 percent molasses (per 100 kg of residues dry mater) were mixed with water and sprayed on the surface of crop residues. To determine the amount of available dry mater of residues per square meter and chemical composition, all plats were sampled before spraying. In addition, samples of treated residues were collected for times with 10 days intervals and chemically analyzed. Based on the results obtained from the first phase, 4 treatments including 2.5 and 5 percent urea each with 0.0 and 3 percent molasses were selected plus a control one to study for the second year. Five hectares of barley farm was divided between 5 treatments including: 1) control, 2) 2.5 % urea, 3) 2.5% urea+3% molasses, 4) 5% urea and 5) 5% urea+3% molasses. The additives were mixed with water and sprayed, using of an equipped tractor tanker then the partitioning of the experimental plats was completed by fencing. Sixty Shal ewes were distributed between the treatments, 12 per hectare when they grazed 12 h daily and fed 50 g of concentrate per ewe. Animals were weight at first day and then every 10 days interval up to four times. Results showed that the amount of available dry mater was 400±27 g/m3. Regardless of the levels of urea-molasses, crude protein (CP), crude fiber (CF) and Ash content were affected by treatments (p0.05). There were no interaction effects of ureamolasses on the dry mater (DM), CP and CF concentration, except for the DM at first and second time and CF for first time of sampling. The CP content at different levels of urea or molasses was not varied across the sampling periods. Results of second phase showed that treatments had not different effects on the body weight changes of the ewes except for the treatment 5 (urea 5 percent urea plus 3 percent molasses) that showed higher live weight. During the 50 days grazing, the body live weight was increased in all animals. The lambing rate was 100% in all treatments with exception for treatment 5 that was 125%. It is concluded that macro nutrient deficiencies in cereal crop stubble may be compensated by urea-molasses liquid spraying, where the sheep are grazing. But it is need to use 12000 liters of water per hectare that may not be applicable and economic in every where.