Effect of Urea Molasses Straw (Ums) Feeding on the Growth Performance of Crossbred Sheep

The difficulty of maximizing sheep growth rates while maintaining sustainability and economic viability remains a less focused research topic. Adding urea molasses straw (UMS) can be a good way to boost rumen microbial activity by giving animals a healthy diet of protein, energy, and minerals. Optimizing the effect of UMS supplementation on crossbred sheep in the southwest of Bangladesh was, thus, the experiment's main objective. The 12 sheep were separated into four treatment groups, each with three replications. Groups T₁, T₂, and T₃ were allowed to feed UMS for one hour, 1.5 hours, and two hours, in addition to grazing respectively, while control group (T₀) continued to graze as usual for 10 hours per day. The experimental setup was based on randomized complete block design (RCBD). The initial weighing and grouping of the sheep involved maintaining a random constant average body weight for each of the four treatment groups. The UMS contains 36.67% ± 00 dry matter (DM), 8.47% ± 0.08 crude protein (CP), 26.25 ± 0.23 crude fiber (CF), 1.06% ± 0.14 ether extract (EE), 17.39% ± 0.29 ash, and 46.82% ± 0.19 nitrogen-free extract (NFE). Each sheep group was allowed to graze for 10 hours a day, from 9 am to 6 pm. The allocated UMS was provided in the morning. A registrar maintained regular records of all relevant data, such as body weight, deworming, and immunization. Before letting them fed UMS and graze, empty body weight measurements were taken every week in the morning. The data analysis software utilized was named R.

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