Improving the quality of rice straw by urea and calcium hydroxide on rumen ecology, microbial protein synthesis in beef cattle

Four rumen-fistulated beef cattle were randomly assigned to four treatments according to a 4x4 Latin square design to study the influence of urea and calcium hydroxide [Ca(OH)(2)] treatment of rice straw to improve the nutritive value of rice straw. Four dietary treatments were as follows: untreated rice straw, 50g/kg urea-treated rice straw, 20g/kg urea+20g/kg calcium hydroxide-treated rice straw and 30g/kg urea+20g/kg calcium hydroxide-treated rice straw. All animals were kept in individual pens and fed with concentrate at 0.5g/kg of BW (DM), rice straw was fed ad libitum. The experiment was conducted for four periods, and each period lasted for 21days. During the first 14days, DM feed intake measurements were made while during the last 7days, all cattle were moved to metabolism crates for total faeces and urine collections. The results revealed that 20g/kg urea+20g/kg calcium hydroxide-treated rice straw improved the nutritive value of rice straw, in terms of dry matter intake, digestibility, ruminal volatile fatty acids, population of bacteria and fungi, nitrogen retention and microbial protein synthesis. Based on this study, it could be concluded that using urea plus calcium hydroxide was one alternative method to improve the nutritive value of rice straw, rumen ecology and fermentation and thus a reduction of treatment cost.