Optimizing the urea and molasses concentration to enhance the nutritive and feeding value of treated rice straw

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Abstract

This study sought to optimize the urea and molasses concentrations and rice straw preparation to improve the nutritional value and quality of silage for ruminants. It consisted of four (4) parts and was conducted sequentially: 1) screening and characterization, 2) optimization using Response Surface Methodology (RSM), 3) numerical optimization, and 4) experimental validation. Three (3) factors were considered for the optimization protocol: 1) urea concentration ranging from 1% to 6%; 2) molasses concentration from 1% to 8%; and (3) rice straw preparations as un-chopped and chopped. The results indicated that varying molasses concentration from 1% to 8% did not significantly affect dry matter (DM) and crude protein (CP) degradability. Additionally, rice straw preparation showed no significant effect on all responses at a low urea concentration (1%). However, at a high urea concentration (6%), chopped rice straw resulted in significantly higher values for all responses than un-chopped rice straw. The optimized conditions were found to be 4.39% urea concentration for chopped and 3.61% for un-chopped rice straw. Using chopped rice straw at the optimized urea concentration improved DM, CP, and organic matter (OM) degradability compared to un-chopped rice straw. Thus, the utilization of optimized levels of urea combined with molasses ranging from 1% to 8% led to higher-quality rice straw silage.

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