Effect of two sources of straw non-protein nitrogen on quality orange fruit silage, growth performance, and some blood parameters of Zell fattening lambs

In this study, the effect of two sources of straw (wheat and rice) and two sources of non-protin nitrogen (urea and Nitroza) in full orange fruit silage on the quality of silage, growth performance and some blood parameters of Zell fattening male lambs were investigated. This study was carried out in a completely randomized design with 4 treatments and 6 replications on male lambs with mean age of 5.5 months and average weight of 24±2 kg for 75 days. Experimental treatments included: 1) 86.4 % orange+14.5 % wheat straw and 0.9% Nitrosa 2) 86.4 % orange+14.5 % wheat straw +0.9% urea 3) 86.4 % orange+14.5% rice straw + 0.9% urea 4) 86.4 % orange+14.5% rice straw +0.9% Nitrosa. Results showed that the addition of wheat straw to orange silage significantly increased dry matter, crude ash and NDF and decreased organic matter (P <0.05). The addition of urea significantly increased the amount of crude protein, crude fat and pH of the silage and reduced ADF and NFC (P <0.05). The results of growth performance showed that at the end weight, the highest and lowest daily gain were observed in treatments 1 and 3, respectively (P <0.05). The overall results showed that adding wheat straw with urea improved the chemical quality of silage. The growth performance of experimental lambs in dry matter intake and weight gain had the same results and no significant difference was obtained.