THE PERFORMANCE OF BALI CATTLE FED ON UREA CONTAINING DIETS.

THE PERFORMANCE OF BALI CATTLE
FED ON UREA CONTAINING DIETS
I B. Sudana, N. W. Siti and Dsk. P.M.A. Candrawati
[email protected]
Faculty of Animal Husbandry Science
Udayana University
______________________________ABSTRACT_________________________
A feeding experiment was conducted in which Bali cattle were given a
basal diet of urea ammoniated rice straw supplemented either with urea molasses
block, rice bran or urea molasses block plus rice bran. The experiment was
designed in completely randomized design (CRD) with 5 treatments and 4
animals in every treatment.
The objective of the experiment was to examine the effects of
supplementation on bodyweight gain and the efficiency of feed conversion in Bali
cattle, feed on urea ammoniated rice straw basal diets.
Cattle on the supplemented diets produced an average bodyweight gain of
230-326 g/h/d. The highest live weight (326 g/h/d) was observed on cattle given
basal diet supplemented with 400 g urea molasses block plus 600 g/h/d of rice
bran. The use of urea molasses block as a supplement was superior to rice bran
supplement. Although the straw intake of all groups of animals was not
significantly different (P>0.05), the supplemented groups used diets more

efficiently. The lowest FCR in this experiment was 15.0 observed on cattle given
a basal diet of urea ammoniated rice straw, supplemented with 400 g urea
molasses block plus 600 g/h/d of rice bran.
__________________________________________________________________
Keywords: Bali cattle, urea ammoniated rice straw, urea molasses block, rice
bran supplement

INTRODUCTION
Bali cattle are the only pure-breed cattle in Indonesia. The origin of this
breed is Bos banteng.
The Indonesian government is trying to develop this breed intensively at
the village level. This reason for this is that this breed is the original one, adapted
well to the environment and culture in Indonesia, especially in Bali. Slow growth
rates of the Bali cattle have reduced the effectiveness of the government
programme.
In Bali, the cattle are raised for domestic use as meat producing drought
animals and as an investment by the farmers. The feeding system is based cutand-carry. The feed mainly consisted of field grass, tree leaves, banana stem and
rice straw. Concentrate in the diet are not common. The diet apparently
inadequate, so that the weight gain of the animals is usually low, less than
200g/a/d (Rika et al., 1981).

1

It would be very valuable if the conventional cattle diet in Bali could be
improved by a simple treatment or supplementation that is not expensive and easy
to manage by the farmer at the village level. The available and cheap feed (rice
straw) is highly indigestible and low in N content. The use of urea ammoniated
rice straw (Mudita,2008) and urea molasses block or rice bran or the combination
of both as a supplement is a good approach (Sudana, 1992;Wanapat and
Khampa,2007). Therefore, studies were designed on the use of urea ammoniated
rice straw (“jerea”) UMB, and rice bran in increasing the utilization of rice straw
in the Bali cattle diet and increasing the performance of the Bali cattle itself.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
After 2 weeks adjustment period, 20 uncastrated Bali cattles (147 – 156kg
bodyweight) were randomly allocated to 5 experimental diets show in table 1.
“Jerea” were made by ammoniated the fresh rice straw with urea (4% urea/straw
DM) and fermented in un-aerobic condition for 6 weeks. The urea molasses block
(UMB), (which consisted of: 16% urea, 37% molasses, 32% rice bran, 6.5% copra
meal, 8% lime and 2% minerals mix) was given to the animals twice a day in a
total quantity of 400g/h/d. Rice bran were fed to the animals one a day (600g/h/d).
Daily feed intake was recorded and the animals were weight every 2 weeks prior

to feeding. The treatment covered 12 weeks. Data were analysis using an analysis
of variance (Snedecor, 1968).
Table 1. Composition of the diets
Diet component
Field grass
Ammoniated
rice
straw (“jerea”)
Urea molasses block
(UMB) (g DM)*
Rice bran (g DM)
Water

A
ad lib
0

Treatment Groups
B
C

D
0
0
0
ad lib
ad lib
ad lib

E
0
ad lib

0

0

400

0


400

0
ad lib

0
ad lib

0
ad lib

600
ad lib

600
ad lib

*Manufactured by sub. BPTP, Grati, East Java- Indonesia
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Mean total DM intake, straw intake, rice bran intake, live-weight change

and FCR for each group of cattle are given in Table 2.
According to the literatures (See Leng et al, 1973, Leng 1984; Loosli and
McDonald, 1968 and Block, 2006) the rumen fluid ammonia concentration should
be kept higher than 50 mg Nl-1 to sufficiently support microbial production in the
rumen. The actual lavel of ammonia in the rumen required for growth and activity
of rumen microorganism depend on variety of factors including diet and feeding
regime (Leng and Nolan, 1984; Bach et al., 2005). Rice straw basal diet usually
produce low level of ammonia rumen (Sudana, 1984; Astawa, 2007) and can be
increase by ammoniated the straw with urea or by supplemented the diet with urea
2

molasses block (Sudana and Leng, 1986). In all studies the first limiting nutrient
for microbial growth has been assumed to be ammonia.
Table 2. Feed intake and live-weight gain
Parameter
Live-weight gain (g/h/d)
Field grass intake (g DM/h/d)
Jerea intake (g DM/h/d)
UMB intake (g DM/h/d)
Rice bran (g DM/h/d)

Total feed intake(g DM/h/d)
FCR (feed intake/live-weight
gain)

A
120a
3262
0
0
0
3262a
27.18a

Treatment groups
B
C
D
b
c
89

257
230c
0
0
0
3070a
3846b
3542c
0
400
0
0
0
600
3070a
4246b
4142b
34.50b 16.52c 18.01c

E

326d
0
3890d
400
600
4890c
15.0c

Value on different alphabet on column showed significant (P