Determining the nutritional value of rumen contents treated with urea and molasses using the nylon bag method

Abstract

Introduction: As the population increases, the need for high-quality animal protein sources
increases. Using agricultural waste and biological waste in animal feed is a good solution to
reduce costs and increase profitability. The aim of this research was to study the effect of
fermentation time and processing of rumen contents with molasses and urea on rumen
degradability using nylon bag method.
Materials & methods: Dry matter degradability of rumen contents processed with 4% urea
and molasses during one and four days of fermentation was determined using three Talshi bulls
cannulated in the rumen with the nylon bag method at different hours of incubation.
Results: The results showed that the degradability of the rumen contents finally reached about
57% and the fermentation time of the silage mass did not have much effect on improving the
degradability, but the addition of urea as a nitrogen source caused a significant increase in the
degradability, as well as, the combined use of molasses and urea at the level of 4% was
effective in increasing the degradability, the use of urea caused a significant increase in the
water-soluble fraction (a), and the combined use of molasses and urea also had the same effect
in increasing the water-soluble fraction, the use of molasses and urea at the level of 4%
significantly increased the slowly degradable fraction (b) and the potential of degradability
(a+b) for processed rumen contents and fermented for four days increased to 76.07 percent.In
relation to the passage rate, it was observed that adding urea in feeding maintenance
requirements conditions increases the passage rate of feeds, but the combined use of 4 percent
urea and molasses did not affect the passage rate of feeds in feeding of twice the maintenance
requirements.
Conclusion: It seems that the processing of rumen contents with 4% urea has increased the
effective degradability, and its use with molasses has significantly improved the degradability
potential, therefore, considering the price of urea and molasses and its effect on improving and
increasing the potential degradability can be used in processing and increasing the nutritional
value of rumen contents.