Use of “dry ammoniation” to improve the nutritive value of Brachiaria humidicola hay

摘要

The“dryammoniation”methodwasdevelopedat“LaEsperanza”farm,UniversityofZulia,Venezuela,locatedinadrytropicalarea,asameanstoimprovethequalityoftropicalhayswithoutthehumidityproblemsobservedwithnbsp;thewettechnique.Theeffectsofstoragetime(14and21days),watervolume(200and400ml/kghay)andureaquantity(20and40g/kghay)onthecrudeproteincontent(CP)andinvitrodigestibilityofNDFwerestudiedusingafactorialarrangementdesign(2x2x2)plusonecontrol(non-treatedhay)withthreereplicationspertreatment.Smallhaybalesof1kg,madefromseveralcommercialhaybalesofBrachiariahumidicola,wereusedasexperimentalunits.Theureasolutionswereaddedintoplasticcontainers(19l)beforeplacingthehay,leavingaspaceof5-8cmbetweenthehayandthesolution.Thereafterthecontainerswerecoveredhermeticallywithaplasticsheetandstoredunderaroofedarea.The“dryammoniation”improvedtheCP(3.2to8.3%)aswellastheNDFinvitrodigestibility(46.2to57.1%),whenthecontrolhaywascomparedagainsttheaverageofthetreatedhays.Thebestresultwasobtainedwhenthehaywasstoredfor21daysandtreatedwith200mlofwater+40gofurea/kg(10.6%CPand63.1%NDFinvitrodigestibility).