Effect of By-pass Protein Supplemen-tation of Urea Treated Wheat Straw Based Rations on the Nutrient Digestibility and Nitrogen Balance in Sheep

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of supplementation of untreated and urea treated wheat straw with cotton seed meal as by-pass protein source on the nutrient dynamics and nitrogen balance in sheep. Results of dry matter, crude protein and crude fibre digestibility of experimental rations are given in Table 1.

Results of this study revealed that urea treated wheat straw increased the crude fibre digestibility of the rations and by increasing the level of cotton seed meal in the rations, having untreated wheat straw increased the nitrogen retention.

Feeding Multi-nutrient Molasses Blocks with or without Yucca Extract on the Chemical Composition of Beef

Table 1. Effect of feeding untreated and urea treated wheat straw with the supplementation of cotton seed meal on nutrient digestibility in sheep

Formulating poultry feeds based on available amino acids proved to be advantageous over formulating on total amino acid basis. Information on the requirements for available amino acids in broilers is available from temperate countries, however, these requirements may not be entirely relevand in the tropics and subtropics because of the different climatic conditions particularly the temperature.

A six week growth performance trial involving 450 birds was conducted to determine the dietary requirement of broiler chicks for available methionine (AM) during summer. The dietary requirement of AM for broiler chicks was assessed using three levels of AM in the experimental diets. Standard diet (normal AM diet) contained AM level recommended by AEC (1987) whereas, other two diets contained 10% below (low AM diet) or 10% above (high AM diet) than standard for starter and finisher phases of the growth trial.

The results revealed that body weight gain was significantly (P< 0.01) lower on high AM diet (1411g/bird) as compared to low AM (1470g/bird) and standard AM (1466g/bird) diets. The feed intake of the birds ranged from 3241±25.69 g/bird in high AM diet to 3321±25.69 g/bird in low AM diet. The feed efficiency for low, standard and high level of AM were 2.26±0.02, 2.24± 0.02 and 2.30±0.02; respectively. The results also indicated that the birds fed high AM diet consumed (P<0.01) more feed per unit body weight gain as compared to birds on low and standard AM diets. Broiler chicks on standard level of AM as recommended by AEC (1987) and 10% below the standard level of AM in the diet performed better during summer, while 10% addition in standard AM depressed the growth rate.

FEED TECHNOLOGY UNIT, NARC

Feed Technology Unit, NARC is conducting feed development research and also providing various types of livestock feeds to farming community. The main thrust of the unit is to provide the nutritionally balanced and cost effective livestock feed to the farmers to enhance the livestock productivity.

During 1998, this unit blended and supplied about 332 tons of PARC Cattle Feed for dairy animals and 60 tons for breeding bulls. This unit also marketed about 30 tons feed for sheep and goats. PARC Feeds were supplied to private farmers as well as to public research institutes like Livestock Research Institute, NARC, Barani Livestock Production Research Institute, Kherimurat, Semen Production Units of Kherimurat and Qadirabad, and Livestock Development and Research Centre (LDRC), Muzaffarabad, AJK.

Feed Technology Unit has marketed 6000 PARC Feed Blocks (5 kg each) to various livestock farms including Livestock Development Research Centre, Muzaffarabad, AJK and FAO/UNDP Project, Afghanistan and also to the local farmers.

FEED DEVELOPMENT CENTRE, LARKANA