BioSMART ISSN: 1411-321X

Volume 7, Nomor 1 April 2005

Halaman: 44-46

Effects of Physical Form of Barley Straw and Urea Supplementation on Intake

and Digestion of Sheep Kept Under High Ambient Temperature

MARSETYO♥
Department of Animal Nutrition, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tadulako, Palu 94118

Received: 10 January 2005. Accepted: 1 March 2005.

ABSTRACT

This research was designed to examine the effect of both physical form of the roughage (chaff or ground/pelleted) and or urea
supplementation on intake, and digestion by sheep fed barley straw housed at high ambient temperature (40oC). The experimental design
was factorial 2 x 2 x 4. Sixteen Merino sheep, weighing 26.3 ± 2.1 (SE) kg were randomized into four groups (n=4). Each group was fed
one of the following diets: C = chaffed barley straw; CU= chaffed barley straw + 2% urea; P= ground/pelleted barley straw; PU=
ground/pelleted barley straw + 2% urea, all with mineral and vitamin supplement. The interactions between treatments were significant
on dry matter intake (DMI) (P<0.01) but were not significant on dry matter digestibility (DMD; P>0.05). Dry matter digestibility was
lower on diet P than on C (33 vs. 41%), but was not affected (P<0.05) by urea supplementation. The digestible DMI (DDMI) was
significantly affected by the interaction between treatments (P<0.01). It was concluded that while urea supplementation and
grinding/pelleting led to increase in DMI, the actual response to urea was small and in the case of ground/pelleted material in the
absence of urea, there was a concurrent reduction in DMD.

Key words: barley straw, physical form, urea, sheep.

INTRODUCTION roughages contain only 3-5% crude protein (Jackson,

Ruminants fed solely on straw-based diets generally
have a low voluntary intake and experience a loss in live
weight (Leng, 1990). The underlying causes of this low
voluntary intake and low animal performance are a low
digestibility of the straw, which is caused mainly by its
high level of lignifications and by deficiencies of critical
nutrients to support an efficient population of micro-
organisms in the rumen. Diets consisting solely of straw are
associated with a low availability and an imbalance of
nutrients and the available metabolisable energy is ineffi-
ciently used for live weight gain (Wheeler et al., 2002).
One obvious way of increasing the utilization of straw
is to reduce its particle size and to thus improve its
digestion (Carmona and Greenhalgh, 1972). These authors
reported that milling as compared to chopping of barley
straw led to a 34% increase in digestible organic matter
intake by sheep, and suggested that this was because
grinding increases the surface area of the feed particles
which in turn provided more surface area for rumen
microbial attachment. In addition, smaller particle size can
result in the greater outflow rate (France and Siddons,
1993). This is because smaller particle feeds have a greater
ability to pass the reticulum by ruminal contractions than
greater particle feeds. Since straw and other low-quality
♥ Corresponding address:
Alamat korespondensi:
Program StudiBaturiti,
Candikuning, Nutrisi dan Makanan
Tabanan, BaliTernak,
82191. Fakultas Pertanian
Universitas
Tel. & Fax.:Tadulako, Palu 94118, Sulawesi Tengah, Indonesia
+62-368-21273.
Tel. +62-451-429738.
e-mail: Fax.: +62-451-429738.igtirta59@yahoo.com
direkbg@singaraja.wasantara.net.id,
e-mail: marsetyomarsetyo@yahoo.co.uk
1977), there is often insufficient nitrogen to allow microbes
to grow efficiently in the rumen, and consequently the
addition of protein and or non protein nitrogen (NPN) to
these diets is necessary to maintain the rumen microbes and
to support maximum animal productivity (Wheeler et al.,
2002). However, since protein supplements are usually
limited in availability and very costly, the use of dietary
urea to supply N for ruminants may be a more economic
alternative for smallholder farmers in particular. The
experiment was thus undertaken in order to further advance
our understanding of the mechanism of the effect of parti-
cle size of barley straw and urea supplementation on intake
and digestion by sheep under high ambient temperature.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
Location and time
This experiment was conducted at the animal house and
laboratory of the Department of Animal Science of the
University of New England, Armidale, Australia from
March to August 1997.
Animals, experimental design and diets
Sixteen Merino sheep, approximately 18 months of age
and weighing 26.3 + 2.1 kg, were allocated by stratified
randomization to four dietary groups, each of four animals.
A seven week experimental period was adopted. For the
first 14 days, dietary adaptation was allowed, and sheep
were housed individually in floor pens in a room at an
ambient temperature of 20±3oC. Room temperature was

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 MARSETYO – Effect of barley straw and urea supplementation on sheep woof
then progressively increased by 3oC each day between days
15 and 21 until a level of 40±3oC was reached. Relative
humidity was controlled between 40-50%. On day 22, data
collection of feed intake was started. On the day 37, the
animals were transferred to individual metabolism crates in
the same room. A container was placed under each cage to
collect faeces for the last seven days. In this case, each
animal was fitted with a faecal collection harness to which
a polyethylene faeces collection bag was attached. Lighting
was provided from 06.00 to 18.00 hours daily.
Barley straw was the basal feedstuff and the following
four dietary treatments were imposed in a factorial design
employing two factors (physical form of roughage and urea
supplementation) at two levels: (i) Chaffed barley straw (1-
5 cm chaff length) and no urea (C), (ii) Chaffed barley
straw (1-5 cm chaff length) mixed with 2% urea (CU), (iii)
Hammer-milled and pelleted barley straw (1 mm particle
size) and no urea (P), (iv) Hammer-milled and pelleted
barley straw (1 mm particle size) mixed with 2% urea
(PU). Urea solution (1 kg/5L in water at 60oC) was sprayed
on either the chaffed straw or on the ground straw before
pelleting of rations 2 and 4 above (CU and PU). All diets
were supplemented with sulfur as Na2SO4 (2 g S/kg basal
diet) and Pfizer 422 mineral and vitamin supplement (1
g/kg basal diet). Each dietary treatment consisted of four
animals as replications. Feed was offered twice daily (at
09.00 and 16.00 hours respectively) and fresh drinking
water was continuously available at all times.
Measurements
Feed intake was measured daily. Feed offered to and
refused by each sheep was recorded twice per day at
feeding at 09.00 h and 16.00 h. Feed was sampled daily for
determination of DM (24 h at 105oC). The total faeces from
each sheep was collected daily during the last seven days of
the experimental period, and a sample (well mixed) of 500
g was dried to a constant weight (48 h) in a forced draught
oven at 800C for determination of DM.
Statistical analysis
Data obtained during the experiment were analyzed
using the Minitab 10.1. statistical program (Ryan et al.,
1985). A two-way analysis of variance was employed to
determine significant effects of the treatment groups. Least
significant difference was used to test any differences
between treatment means (Steel and Torrie, 1980)
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Dry matter intake
For DMI there was a significant interaction between the
physical form of the roughage (ground/pelleted or chaffed)
and urea supplementation (P<0.01). There was no
significant difference in daily DMI (P>0.05) between sheep
fed barley chaff and supplemented with either 0 or 2%
urea. On the other hand, the mean daily DMI in sheep fed
ground/pelleted barley straw was increased significantly
(P<0.01) (Figure 1 and Table 1) by dietary urea
supplementation. Grinding/pelleting of barley straw was
associated with only a 9% (43 g/d) increase in the DMI of
sheep fed the basal chaff diet with urea (P>0.05) (Table 1).
45
The effect of urea supplementation was to increase the
DMI of chaff by 7.8% (37 g/d) (P>0.05), but that of
ground/pelleted straw by 36% (187 g) (P<0.01). Grinding
together with urea supplementation increased the DMI of
straw by 48% (230 g/d) over the DMI of the basal diet of
chaffed straw (P<0.01).
Table 1. Dry matter intake (DMI), dry matter digestibility (DMD)
and digestible dry matter intake (DDMI) of Merino sheep fed
chaffed or pelleted barley straw with or without urea supplement
at high ambient temperature (mean±SE, N=4).
Dietary treatments Probability value
Parameters
C CU P PU Pellet Urea Interaction
DMI (g/d) 477±33 514±14 520±26 707±12 0.001 0.001 0.001
DMD (%) 40.8±2.1 42.4±1.3 31.6±4.2 35.2±2.1 0.001 0.340 0.710
DDMI (g/d) 195±11 218±10 164±18 249±18 0.410 0.001 0.001
Annotation: C= Chaffed barley straw; CU= Chaffed barley straw
mixed with 2% urea; P = Hammer-milled and pelleted barley
straw; PU= Hammer-milled and pelleted barley straw mixed with
2% urea.
800
700
600
Total DMI (g/d)
500
400
300
200
100
0
C CU P PU
Dietary treatment
Figure 1. Effect of physical form of barley straw (C and P) and
urea supplementation on total dry matter intake (DMI) of Merino
sheep at high ambient temperature (vertical bars = SEM of total
DMI). Annotation: C = Chaffed barley straw; CU = Chaffed
barley straw mixed with 2% urea; P = Hammer-milled and
pelleted barley straw; PU = Hammer milled and pelleted barley
straw mixed with 2% urea.
Urea supplementation of the sheep receiving ground/
pelleted barley straw was associated with an increase of
48% in DMI relative to that in the chaffed only group. A
similar effect on voluntary intake was observed by
Campling and Freer (1966) in sheep supplemented with
urea on a diet of pelleted and ground oat straw.
Furthermore, the current results indicate that while both
grinding/pelleting or urea supplementation per se increased
total DMI, the most dramatic occurred as a result of a
combination of these two treatments. The increase in DMI
as a result of grinding/pelleting is consistent with a number
of earlier findings (Berger et al., 1994; Weston, 1996) that
a reduction in particle size of the basal diet reduces the
mean retention time of digests, allowing more feed to be
ingested. Faichney (1993) also noted that grinding increase
the reticulo-rumen digests volume and in particular, rumen
DM fill, presumably because the smaller particles of
ground hay were able to be packed more closely together in
the reticulo-rumen.
Dry matter digestibility and digestible dry matter intake
The interaction between treatments was non significant
(P>0.05) for DMD, which was significantly lower on the
ground/pelleted diet (by 8 units) (P<0.05) than on chaff,
46 B i o S M A R T Vol. 7, No. 1, April 2005, hal. 44-46
but was not significantly affected by urea supplementation
(Table 1). Grinding/pelleting the roughage in this experi-
ment led to a decrease in DMD and this depression was
greater on the unsupplemented than on the urea-supple-
mented diet; supplementation of barley chaff with urea
resulted in a small but non-significant increase in DMD.
The observed reduction in DMD of the ground/pelleted
diet agrees with many reports in which both cattle and
sheep were given long and ground roughages (Minson,
1963; Beardsley, 1964). This depression in DMD
associated with grinding is considered to be at least partly
due to the fact that ground roughages pass more quickly
through the reticulo-rumen than long roughages (Mertens,
1993; Berger et al., 1994). Thus, the decline in fiber
digestion observed when ground barley straw was fed in
this experiment was most probably due to a decrease in the
retention time of small feed particles in the rumen. Similar
conclusions have been reached by previous workers
(Meyer et al., 1959), who fed ground lucerne.
Another possible reason for the reduction in DMD as a
result of grinding/pelleting was an associated loss of
digestible organic matter during the grinding and pelleting
process. Wainman and Blaxter (1972) reported that
changes in the chemical composition of a hay diet that had
been both ground and pelleted, and suggested that the loss
of some 9% of the organic matter may have been due to
partial pyrolysis of the carbohydrate during the pelleting
process. If part of the organic matter was lost during
processing in this experiment, the DMD would be expected
to be lower on the ground/pelleted than on the chaffed diet.
Urea supplementation per se did not significantly
improve the DMD of barley straw in either the chaffed or
ground/pelleted form. This is not in agreement with a
number of studies (Horton, 1981; Pearson and Archibald,
1990), which observed a significant increase in the DMD
of low quality roughages supplemented with urea. The
short duration of the adaptation in this experiment may
have contributed to the difference, since evidence in the
literature on the time required for adaptation to urea is
conflicting. Some workers have concluded that adaptation
requires a period of 50 or more days (Coombe and Christian,
1969) while others have reported that adaptation occurred
within 19 days (McLaren et al, 1959; Smith et al., 1960).
For DDMI, the interaction between the physical form of
the roughage and urea supplementation was significant
(P<0.01) (Table 1). For barley chaff, urea supplementation
had a non-significant effect on DDMI (195 vs. 218 g/d),
while for the ground/pelleted diet, on the other hand, urea
supplementation did significantly increase (P<0.05) DDMI
by 52% (from 164 to 249 g/d). The most likely reason for
this difference in response is a difference in total daily
DMI. In sheep fed barley chaff, urea supplementation
increased the DMI by 7.8%. On ground/pelleted barley
straw, on the other hand, urea supplementation increased
total daily DMI by 36%.
CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study suggest that the utilization of
barley straw by sheep at high ambient temperature was increased
by urea supplementation, but not by grinding/pelleting.
Although a combination of grinding and pelleting the
roughage and urea supplementation improved the DMI to a
greater extent than was achieved by either reducing the particle
size or urea supplementation alone, grinding and pelleting
significantly depressed DMD, possibly due to a reduction
in the digesta retention time in the rumen. The magnitude
of the improvement in DMD of barley chaff when supplemented
with 2% urea was not significant, while on ground/pelleted
barley straw, a significant depression actually occurred.
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