A note on the straw intake of sheep given supplements of urea-molasses, soya bean meal, barley-urea or barley

Abstract

SUMMARYIn the first of two trials, groups of 10 Chios lambs were fed on long or chopped straw for 13 weeks. They ate 0·61 and 0·65 kg per day, and lost a total of 7·6 and 8·5 kg body weight, respectively. Over the next 20 weeks, the supplementation of chopped straw with either 150 g of soya bean meal or a molasses-urea mixture given ad libitum increased straw intake. The decline in body weight was reversed and the lambs gained 0·04 kg/day on both treatments.In Trial 2, the intakes of straw by non-lactating ewes were 0·78, 0·78 and 0·70 kg/day with supplements of molasses-urea, barley-urea and barley only, respectively. Ewes on the barley and the barley-urea supplements gained 5·3 and 4·6 kg respectively over the 16-week period whereas those given the molasses-urea supplement lost 2·6 kg.