Influence of Feeding Formaldehyde Treated Gn Cake and its Partial Replacement with Urea on Growth and Feed Utilization in Crossbred Kids

Nutrient utilisation from formaldehyde (HCHO) treated GN cake and its partial replacement with urea was studied in a twenty week growth trial conducted on 15 female kids (Alpine x Beetal). The animals were divided in 3 groups and fed on concentrate mixture and oats fodder. The concentrate mixture contained GN cake (group A), GN cake treated with HCHO (group B) and 53.6% of the cake as in Diet A replaced by urea and the remainder supplied as HCHO treated cake (group C). The DM intake was 581.9, 598.4 482.1 g/day and the average daily gain was 52.41, 70.00 and 50.34 g for groups A, B and C respectively. Both, the DM intake (P<0.05) and growth rate (P<0.01) differed significantly with the treatments. Digestibilities of CP, EE, CF, ADF and NFE remained unaffected but NDF digestibility was significantly (P <0.01) lower on Diet C than the other diets. Plasma urea concentration was maximum on Diet C and minimum on Diet B, but plasma protein concentration was maximum on Diet B. The investigation indicated that there was reduced DM intake and growth rate on feeding HCHO treated GN cake with urea compared to when all the cake in the diet was given in treated form.