Intake, Digestibility and blood metabolites of Sistani heifers fed urea treated common reed

In arid and semi arid areas, the animal species reared are local breeds. This rearing system is almost low input with low productivity. Forage sources would not quantitatively and qualitatively provide animal requirements in these regions. So, it seems necessary to use feeding strategies in order to increase feed efficiency. In Sistan region, common reed and cereal straws contribute the most part of Sistani heifers diet, however, few in vivo experiments has been conducted to evaluate the effect of urea treated common reed. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess feed intake and digestibility of nutrients in Sitani heifers fed on common reed as a sole diet.
Fifteen Sistani heifers with the average weight of 180 ± 21 kg were used in a completely randomized design. Treatments were as follows: 1) common reed without treating with urea, 2) common reed treated with1% of DM urea, and 3) common reed treated with 1% of DM urea. Urea was first dissolved in water and added to the common reed and then stored for 21 d. Nutrients intake and digestibility and some blood metabolites were determined.
The content of CP in treated common reed was higher than control (P Generally, due to CP deficiency of common reed (lower than 3% of DM), application of urea at 2% as a low cost protein source in the diet of Sistani heifers could lead to increase in CP content and consequently improvement in CP intake and digestibility and also partly provided its requirements.