A note on the protein requirement for maintenance of adult rams

Abstract

SUMMARYNitrogen balance studies of latin square design were conducted on six adult rams receiving diets with approximately 4, 8 and 16% crude protein. The diets were almost isocaloric and contained groundnut cake, wheat bran, maize starch, and chopped wheat straw. Metabolic faecal and endogenous urinary N were 0·24 ± 0·003 g/100 g dry-matter intake and 0·038 ± 0·01 g/kg body weight per day. Biological value, true digestibility and coefficient of net utilization were 86·9 ± 8·68, 93·4 ± 1·94 and 79·6 ± 2·47, respectively.Daily digestible crude protein requirements for maintenance estimated by the factorial method (0·875 + 0·;06 g/kg W0·734) and from N balance and the net utilization of protein (0·893 + 0·03 g/kg W0·734) were similar but slightly higher than the requirement estimated from N balance alone (0·738 ± 0·04 g/kg W0·734). All values are lower than the conventional recommendations.