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Feeding rice straw supplemented with urea-molasses lick block to lactating cows in Bhutan |
T. Ghebrehiwet, P. Wangdi, M. N. M. Ibrahim |
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Abstract |
Twelve cross bred cows (300 20 kg) were fed a basal ration consisting of 1 kg concentrate and untreated or urea treated rice with or without urea-molasses-wheat bran lick block supplementation. The lick blocks were prepared locally using cement as a binding agent. The experiment lasted for 48 days consisting of a preliminary period of 14 days and a measurement period of 34 days. Daily dry matter intake (DMI) of straw and lick block, and daily milk yield were recorded during the measurement period. Intake of lick block when fed with untreated straw (US) was significantly higher (p<0.01) than with urea treated (TS) straw (397 vs 307 g 100 kg-1 day-1), but lick block supplementation did not significantly affect the intake of US (1.80 vs 1.83 kg 100 kg-1 day-1) or TS (2.27 vs 2.17 kg 100 kg-1 day-1). Both urea treatment and lick block supplementation significantly increased (p<0.01) the milk yield of cows, and the increase due to urea treatment was higher than that due to lick block supplementation. Benefit/cost ratio obtained for feeding US or TS supplemented with lick block was 3.4 and 3.7, respectively, but the marginal return with US was higher than with TS (1.6:1.0 and 0.9:1.0, respectively). |
Keywords:
Rice Straw; Rice Straw; Lick Block; Cows |
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