DEVELOPMENT OF MOLASSES-UREA MULTINUTRIENT BLOCK AND ITS USE AS SUPPLEMENT TO GROWING YANKASA SHEEP.
DEVELOPMENT OF MOLASSES-UREA MULTINUTRIENT BLOCK AND ITS USE AS SUPPLEMENT TO GROWING YANKASA SHEEP.
No Thumbnail Available
Date
1992-01
Authors
LAKPINI, CLARENCE AYODELE MAWO
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
This work comprised four phases which were:
1. Fabrication of the steel mould.
2. Formulation of the mixture and moulding of the mixed
components into blocks.
3. Physical testing of the blocks to determine their
hardness and shearing properties.
4. Feeding trial using sorghum stover as basal diet and
different types of graded level of molasses - urea
blocks as supplement in feeding Yankasa yearling
rams.
Three types of molasses-urea blocks which contained
maize offal, rice bran or guinea corn spent grain as filler
at 43% inclusion rate with each type containing graded levels
of fertilizer grade urea at inclusion rates of 5%, 10% and
15% were made. The amounts of molasses in the block were
3 6%, 31% and 26% for the 5, 10 and 15% urea blocks
respectively. Carbide oxide and cement were the binding
agents added together in the block at the rate of 3% and 6%
respectively. Potash, common salt, bone meal and vitamins
were also added to form a total of 7% of the block mixture.
Forty five yearling Yankasa rams weighing between
13.0kg and 27.0kg were balanced for weight into 9 groups of 5
animals per group. The animals were fed individually at 09
hours every day with 500g of chopped sorghum stover. Each
animal was supplemented with the appropriate molasses - urea
block that corresponded with the group it belonged to as
follows:
Group 1: 5% urea maize offal block
Group 2: 10% urea maize offal block
Group 3: 15% urea maize offal block
Group 4: 5% urea rice bran block
Group 5: 10% urea rice bran block
Group 6: 15% urea rice bran block
Group 7: 5% urea guinea corn spent grain block
Group 8: 10% urea guinea corn spent grain block
Group 9: 15% urea guinea corn spent grain block
The feeding trial was for a total of 84 days, including
the first 21 days for adjustment. The left over of the stover
and the remaining molasses-urea blocks were weighed daily
before the day's feeding so as to determine the previous
day's intake. Water was provided ad-libitum.
The animals were weighed weekly before the day's feeding
in order to determine live weight changes.
The result of the organic matter digestibility shows
that for the maize offal block and the guinea corn spent
grain block, the lowest digestibility was at 15% and highest
at 5% urea levels. The reverse was true of the rice bran
blocks. For the 5% and 15% urea levels, the digestibilities
of maize offal blocks were highest while those of the rice
bran blocks were least. At 10% urea level, the highest
digestibility was obtained for guinea corn spent grain block.
Generally, the digestibilities of rice bran blocks were
lowest (Table 4.1).
Tables 4,2 and 4.3 show that the higher the level of
molasses inclusion, the softer the blocks to cut. For any
given molasses level, maize offal produced the hardest block
while rice bran blocks were softest.
The intake of sorghum stover was significantly (P<0.05)
influenced by the type of block. At 5% urea level, the intake
of stover was higher significantly (P<0.05) in the group
supplemented with maize offal block than in those
supplemented with guinea corn spent grain block.
At 10% and 15% urea levels, the stover intake by the
group supplemented with maize offal block was significantly
(P<0.05) higher than that supplemented with rice bran block.
The daily stover intake by the rams was between 320.Og
and 342,2g and this constituted between 76.3% and 38.4% of
the total dry matter intake. Increasing the level of urea in
the block did not significantly influence stover intake.
The response of the rams to the various types of blocks
was good. They reached a maximum intake in the 6th week
after the initial adjustment period of 3 weeks.
For each type of block, the higher the urea content, the
lower the intake of the supplementing block. The intake of 5%
urea maize offal block was 108.4% and 256.3% higher than the
intakes of 10% and 15% urea maize offal blocks respectively.
The intake of 10% urea rice bran block was significantly
(P<0.05) less (58.5%) and higher (29.7%) than of 5% and 15%
urea rice bran block respectively. The pattern for the
guinea corn spent grain block was similar to the other two
types.
Within urea levels, the intake of maize offal block was
significantly (P<0.05) higher than for either rice bran block
or guinea corn spent grain block. At 5% urea level, the
intake of maize offal block was 55.9% and 88.4% higher than
of the rice bran and guinea corn spent grain blocks
respectively. The intake of 10% urea maize offal block was
18.6% higher than that of rice bran block while that of
guinea corn spent grain block was 33.8% lower than the former
at the same urea level. The intake of 15% urea guinea corn
spent grain block was less than those of maize offal and rice
bran blocks by 48.2% and 64.8% respectively.
The intakes of 5%, 10% and 15% urea maize offal blocks
were 2.6%, 1.5% and 0.8% of their liveweights respectively
while the corresponding values for rice bran blocks were
1.7%, 1.0% and 0.9% respectively. As for the guinea corn
spent grain blocks, at 5% urea level, intake was 1.5% but
1.1% and 0.6% of the liveweight for 10% and 15% urea levels
respectively.
The only group of rams which gained weight in the course
of the experiment were those supplemented with 5% urea maize
offal block and the daily gain was 2.19g. All other groups
of animals lost weight within the range of - 118.9 to -392.6g
daily.
The feed conversion of 5% urea maize offal block was
significantly (P<0.05) higher than that of guinea corn spent
grain block. Except for the conversion ratio of the 5% urea
maize offal block which was positive (0.0438) those for the
other blocks were negative (Table 4.5).
Description
A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE POST GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE AWARD OF DEGREE OF MASTER OF ANIMAL SCIENCE DEPARTMENT OF ANIMAL SCIENCE,
FACULTY OF AGRICULTURE,
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY,
ZARIA
NIGERIA
JANUARY, 1992
Keywords
DEVELOPMENT,, MOLASSES-UREA,, MULTINUTRIENT,, BLOCK,, SUPPLEMENT,, GROWING,, YANKASA,, SHEEP.