Digestibility and nitrogen utilization by sheep fed corn stover treated with different nitrogen sources
1997
Ali, I. (Directorate of Animal Health, Livestock & Dairy Development, Lahore (Pakistan)) | Fontenot, J.P. | Allen, V.G.
A metabolism trial with 36 crossbred wethers, were conducted to study the effects of feeding corn stover treated with different N- sources. The lamb were randomly allotted within blocks to the experimental diets. The diets were 1 basal. (2) basal + untreated corn stover. (3) basal + 3% NH3-treated corn stover. (4) basal + 50% poultry litter - treated corn stover. (5) basal + 5.8% urea treated corn stover and (6) basal + 5.8% urea + 10% cattle waste-treated corn stover. The basal diet was fed to sheep mixed with corn stover silages made after treating them with respective materials. The apparent digestibilities of DM and OM were higher (P.01) in sheep fed the basal diet alone than sheep fed the basal diet with treated corn stover. The apparent digestibilities of DM (P.05) and OM (P.01) improved due to NH3 and urea-treatment of corn stover. Among NH3 and urea treatments, urea-treated stover diet showed higher (P.05) digestibility of DM and OM. Adding cattle waste to urea-treated stover did not further enhance the digestibilities. Digestibility of CP was lower (P.01) in untreated stover diets compared to treated stover diets (P.01) than for the ammonia treated diets. The apparent digestibilities of NDF and hemicellulose were higher (P.01) in sheep fed the basal diet alone compared to sheep fed the basal with treated corn stover diets. Ammonia and urea treatments of corn stover improved (P.01) digestibility of NDF, cellulose, and hemicellulose in corn stover. Adding cattle waste to un-treated corn stover did not enhance the digestibility of these nutrients. Sheep fed all the diets except the basal diet showed the negative N-balance. Ruminal pH and NH3-N and blood urea-N were higher (P.01) in sheep fed N- treated stover diets than the un-treated stover diets. Concentration of total VFA and branch chained VFA in the fluid were not different among sheep fed the different diets. However, butyric acid (P.01) and isovaleric acid (P.05), were found higher in sheep fed the basal diet.
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