Bs. Yadav et As. Virk, THE FIXATION OF NITROGEN USING ACID, GREEN FORAGE AND GERMINATED BARLEY DURING UREA TREATMENT OF STRAWS, Animal feed science and technology, 50(1-2), 1994, pp. 123-135
In the treatment of gram straw hydrochloric acid had a more significan
t (P<0.01) effect than sulphuric acid in lowering the loss of ammonia
nitrogen from 45.88% in control to 16.28% using 7.5% urea at a 40% (F-
4) fixation level as compared with 30% (F-3), 20% (F-2) and 10% (F-1).
Treatment of gram straw (Cicer arietinum) for 28 days with 7.5% urea
having 44.88% moisture at F-4 could significantly (P<0.01) check the l
oss of ammonia and enhance the crude protein (CP) content to 19.37%. I
n Experiment 2, the loss of nitrogen was effectively reduced from 35%
(T-0) to 22% (T-1) and 21% (T-2) by means of sulphuric acid (10.18 g k
g(-1) dry matter (DM)) and green sorghum (Sorghum vulgaris) mixed with
wheat straw in the ratio of 1:2 at the time of storage. The relative
retention of nitrogen (g day(-1)) in male buffalo calves was significa
ntly (P<0.05) superior in T-1 (53.31) and T-2 (45.58) than T-0 (35.42)
. The digestible CP (DCP) and total digestible nutrient (TDN) values o
f urea treated wheat straw were 7.10%, 8.33%, 6.49%, 57.90%, 55.64% an
d 62.58% in respective treatments. During Experiment 3, untreated whea
t straw plus concentrate mixture, 20% CP (T-3), urea (7.5%) treated st
raw, US (T-4), urea treated straw plus acid (23 g kg(-1) DM) (T-5), an
d urea treated straw plus germinated barley 24% (T-6) were fed to buff
alo calves in four groups. The daily body weight gain (g day(-1)) was
significantly (P<0.01) greater in T-6 (640.15) followed by T-5 (556.80
), T-4 (499.99) and T-3 (458.32). Cost per kg gain in body weight (Rs.
) was minimum in T-6 (12.47) followed by T-4 (14.15), T-5 (14.99) and
T-3 (23.45). The loss of nitrogen was considerably lowered from 51.3%
(T-4) to 19.07% (T-5) using sulphuric acid at farm scale. Urea treated
straw with 24% germinated barley, containing 13.39% CP, 8.33% DCP and
58.54% TDN, may be an economical complete ration for growing buffalo
calves replacing native protein completely.