Nutritional value of pre-dried banana tree pseudostem ammoniated with protected urea

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the chemical composition, pH and rumen degradability of banana tree pseudostems pre-dried and ammoniated with different doses of urea (0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0% in natural matter). The experiment consisted of five treatments (doses of urea) with six replications, following a completely randomized design. There was a linear increase in the pH (P 0.05) in dry matter, ash, neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber, lignin, non-fibrous carbohydrates and total digestible nutrients; the averages were 31.58, 18.82, 46.43, 9.30, 11.87 and 42.52%, respectively. The inclusion of 2% urea increased the crude protein content (P 0.05). The ammonization of the pre-dried banana tree pseudostems with 2% of urea improved the chemical composition and rumen degradability of the dry matter.

Keywords

• Chemical composition
• Ruminal kinetics
• Fiber
• Ruminal repletion.