Effect of urea treatment of wheat straw fed as complete feed under loose housing system on the performance of cross bred heifers

Complete feed not only provides the required nutrients in proper proportion at a time, but, it also improves the feeding values. Keeping in view the above, a study was conducted on 18 cross bred heifers; these were distributed to form three treatment groups having six heifers in each. Treatment group I was the control and was offered wheat straw adlib and 1.5 kg concentrate mixture, treatment group II was offered complete feed ‘sani’ based on wheat straw and concentrate mixture adlib; and treatment group III was also offered complete feed ‘sani’ but in this group urea treated wheat straw was used. The intake of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), total digestible nutrient (TDN) and metabolizable energy (ME) was significantly lower (P< 0.05) when conventional feeding system was used. The intake of above was improved when the feed was offered as complete feed "sani" and the intake of nutrients was further improved when wheat straw was treated with urea and used as complete feed "sani". Lowest body weight gain was observed in the conventional feeding system and highest in complete feed "sani" using urea treated straw but differences were at par between group I & II and group II & III.