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Urea-ammonia treated rice straw as feed to dairy cows in the lower basin of the Guayas River, Ecuador

Abstract:

To evaluate rice straw, ammonified with urea, as an alternative for feeding dairy cows in the lower Guayas river basin, Los Ríos province, Ecuador, a 3 x 3 simple Latin square design was used with three mestizo cows (Creole x Holstein x Jersey), of 320±15 kg live weight, multiparous and in mid-lactation; the calves were fed with sucklers cow. The treatments were: ammonified straw (40 g urea / kg of dry matter, DM and 50% humidity), non-ammonified straw and control, only grazing; the animals that received ammonified and non-ammonified straw had access to pasture for 14 hours, while the cows in the control treatment grazed for 19 hours. The daily milk production had differences between treatments (P<0.001) and were 5.0, 3.0 and 2.3 liters, respectively. Milk composition had normal values and was similar between treatments, with mean values of 3.9% fat, 3.2% protein, 12.3% total solids, and 8.5% non-fatty solids. It is shown that the use of rice straw, ammonified with urea, is a biologically viable option to complement the ration of dairy cows in the lower basin of the Guayas River, particularly during rainy flood season.