›› 2019, Vol. 46 ›› Issue (4): 994-1001.doi: 10.16431/j.cnki.1671-7236.2019.04.005

• Animal Nutrition and Feed Science • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effect of a Slow-release Urea Substituting Dietary Soybean Meal on Growth Performance,Nutrient Digestibility and Blood Biochemical Indexes of Beef Cattle

ZHAO Erlong1, FENG Chunyan2, WANG Jianfei2, BAI Jun1, LI Yanjiao1, LI Meifa1, XIN Junping1, GE Yu1, LI Lizhi1, LIANG Huan1, XU Lanjiao1, QU Mingren1, LI Tingting3   

  1. 1. Feed Engineering Research Center, Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, Jiangxi Provincial Institute of Feed Science, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang 330045, China;
    2. Menon Animal Nutrition Technology Co., Ltd., Shanghai 200000, China;
    3. Pingdingshan City Animal Disease Prevention and Control Center, Pingdingshan 467000, China
  • Received:2018-09-25 Online:2019-04-20 Published:2019-04-22

Abstract:

This study was aimed to investigate the effects of a new slow-release urea substituting dietary part of some soybean meal on growth performance,nutrient digestibility and blood biochemical indexes of beef cattle.Eighteen healthy 7-month-old Simmental hybrid cattle weighted (315±5) kg were randomly divided into three groups:Soybean meal group,slow-release urea group and common urea group,with 6 cattle in each group.Soybean meal group was fed a test diet containing 11.12% (15.51% crude protein (CP),48.06% dry matter (DM)) of soybean meal (concentrate to forage ratio was 4:6).According to the principle of isoenergetic and isonitrogenic,the slow-release urea and common urea groups were fed with slow-release urea and common urea accounted for 1.41% and 1.15% of the respective diets,respectively.That is,75% of the soybean meal in the soybean meal group was replaced by slow-release urea and ordinary urea in the two test groups.Pre-test period was 14 days,and formal test period was 60 days.The results showed as follows:① There was no significant difference in average daily gain (ADG) and feed:gain (F/G) among all groups (P>0.05),but the average dry matter intake (ADMI) in slow-release urea and common urea groups was significantly lower than that in soybean meal group (P<0.05).② The apparent digestibility of DM and organic matter (OM) in slow-release urea and common urea groups were significantly higher than that in soybean meal group (P<0.05);The apparent digestibility of CP in slow-release urea group was significantly lower than that in common urea group (P<0.05),but there was no significant difference between slow-release urea and soybean meal groups (P>0.05);The apparent digestibility of ether extract (EE) was the lowest in common urea group and the highest in soybean meal group,and there was a significant difference among all groups (P<0.05);There was no significant difference in the apparent digestibility of neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) among all groups (P>0.05).③ Compared with the soybean meal group,the replacement of some soybean meal by slow-release urea in the diet did not affect the blood biochemical indicators of beef cattle (P>0.05);The albumin (ALB),alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate transaminase (AST) in slow-release urea group were significantly higher than that in common urea group (P<0.05).The results showed that some soybean meal in the diet could be replaced by slow-release urea and common urea in the production of beef cattle,and the effect of soybean meal being replaced by slow-release urea was better than that of common urea.

Key words: beef cattle; slow-release urea; growth performance; nutrient digestibility; blood biochemical indexes

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