EFFECT OF FEEDING UREA TREATED WHEAT STRAW WITH OR WITHOUT SULPHUR ON NITROGEN UTILIZATION AND GROWTH RATE IN CROSSBRED HEIFERS

This experiment was conducted on twenty five crossbred heifers randomly divided into five treatment groups of five animals each. The five treatments were: T1 (Wheat straw), T2 (1.5% urea treated wheat straw), T3 (1.5% urea plus 0.5% single super phosphate treated wheat straw), T4 (4% urea ammonia treated wheat straw) and T5 (4% urea ammonia plus 1.5% single super phosphate treated wheat straw). The average daily nitrogen intake for treatments T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5 was 82.82, 91.76, 102.89, 129.59 and 150.18 g/day/animal, respectively. The overall differences in nitrogen intake between treatments were highly significant (P<0.01). All the animals were in positive nitrogen balance and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.01). Weight gain and nitrogen retained as per cent of the total nitrogen intake was higher in treatment T5 and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.01) among the treatment groups. It may be concluded that sulphur supplementation to urea treated wheat straw based diets has beneficial effect on nitrogen utilization and growth rate in crossbred heifers.