Nutritional improvement of rice straw treated with urea-molasses and its effect on in vitro digestibility

Abstract
Rice straw was treated with urea-molasses and concealed in a polythene bag for a week. The resultant impact of the treatment on the chemical composition and in vitro gas production parameters was analyzed. Feed grade urea was dissolved in water containing molasses equivalent to 0.5% (T2), 1.0% (T3), 1.5% (T4) and 2% T5 (w/v) were sprayed on 100 g quadruplicate samples. The result obtained showed significant (p<0.05) variations in the chemical composition. The NDF (%) ranged from 75.12 (T1) to 48.78 (T5), ADF (%) 42.34 (T1) to 34.96 (T5) and ADL (%) 16.42 (T1) to 10.25 (T5). These contents decreased progressively with increased inclusion of urea-molasses. However, treatment effect as affected by cellulose content was not significant (p>0.05). The (b, ml) ranged from 6 (T1) to 26 (T5). Treatments 4 had the highest crude protein (13.1%) and ash (2.83%). Gas volume at 24 hours differed significantly (p<0.05) with values increasing with inclusion of urea-molasses from 14 ml (T1) to 30 ml (T5). The methane production increases proportionally with Gv24 with values ranging from 5.33 ml (T1) to 16.00 ml (T5). Treatment of rice straw was affected SCFA (μmol) production. Treatment effect on potassium and phosphorus was significant (p<0.05) while Na, Ca, Mg, Cu, Fe, Zn and Mn were not significantly (p>0.05) affected by treatment. Urea-molasses treatment rice straw improved the fermentation quality and, estimated organic matter digestibility, metabolisable energy and short chain fatty acid.
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