The Use of Soybean Straw as Roughage For Dairy Repalcement Heifers.

Abstract

Twelve crossbred replacement heifers were randomly allocated to 3 treatments in a Completely Randomized Design. Treatments were the feeding of ruzi grass, soybean straw and urea treated soybean straw. All animals were fed 2 kg concentrate and ab-libitum of roughages during the experimental period of 240 days. No significant difference in average daily gain and feed per 1 kg gain were found among the treatment groups. The group fed soybean straw as roughage source tended to gain more than those fed ruzi grass and urea treated soybean straw. The average daily gain were 477, 458 and 456 g/h/d, respectively. Roughage intake showed the same trend since it was significantly higher in groups fed with soybean straw as roughage than the rest groups (P<0.05) 6.82 and 6.39 and 6.30 kg/h/d, respectively.

Feed per 1 kg gain of heifers fed with urea-treated soybean straw tended to be lower than those fed with soybean straw (13.81) and ruzi grass (13.95). Feed cost per 1 kg gain of the the groups were 30.36, 30.33 and 34.63 Baht. Digestibility coefficient of DM was higest in group fed on soybean straw.Digestibility coefficient of DM were 78.21, 83.57 and 80.52%  ,respectively. Throughout the experimental period the liveweight change, animal health and reproductive performance were not affected by the dietary treatments.