1. Chop up dry old maize stalks or other low quality straw overmature grass-cellulose material.
Dig a pit and line with plastic or use the silage bags and fill in
the chopped material. The recommended ratio for treating the residue is 60
grams of urea for every 1kg of dry fodder. The water should be in the same
ratio as the fodder being treated. For example if you have 400kg of maize
stalks, use 400 litres of water and add 24kg of urea.
2. After 3 weeks, the chopped and treated material will be much more
palatable to cows, goats, and all other animals. In milking cows, it has been
proved to boost milk production.
3. There is no danger of poisoning in this method, as the urea will
have been absorbed by the cellulose and converted to a form that provides
energy to the animal as well. Use urea on other feeds Urea can be mixed with
other animal feeds. But these should be done carefully so as not to overdose
the animal
4. Do not mix too much urea with the feed. Urea should not be given
in excess of 30% of digestible crude protein. For an average cow of 500kg
bodyweight, 290g of DCP (digestible crude protein) is recommended. 30% of 290g
= 87g. Now if you check the other attachment of nutrient contents of livestock
feeds, you will see that urea contains 281% DCP, meaning 1kg urea equals 2.81kg
crude protein. This means that in order to supply your 87g/day in the form of
urea, you will only need 87/2.81 = 31g per cow.
Give the correct amount. It is easy to overdose an animal with a
small amount of urea. 1 tablespoon contains about 15g, so 2 tablespoons is
needed for every cow. Mix with grains supplemented by molasses to keep the
rumen pH below 6. Cows can gradually get used to slightly higher proportion of
protein being fed in the form of urea, but farmers have to protect their cows
from getting poisoned. In case of urea poisoning, give the animal vinegar.
For sheep 0.5 litre and for cows 3.0 to 5.0 litres of table vinegar.
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