EFFECT OF FEEDING STRAW SUPPLEMENTING WITH UREA MOLASSES BLOCK LICK ON THE PERFORMANCE OF SHEEP

The experiment was conducted to study the effect of supplementary urea molasses block lick with rice straw based diet on the performance of sheep. Six indigenous sheep of about two years of age with an average body weight of 12.88 kg, were selected for this experiment They grouped into two by stratified randomization, and the experiment was conducted for a period of 90 days. Sheep of group A was fed rice straw and group B was feed rice straw with urea molasses block lick, beside this both the groups received 66 g wheat bran and 167 g of Ipil-Ipil leaf meat. The study revealed that the average daily gain of live weight per sheep per day was 41 gm and 70 gm in group-A and group-B respectively. From the analysis of variance it was evident that live weight gain in sheep of group B, supplemented with urea molasses block lick was highly significant (p < 0.01). It was also estimated that group A required 8.12 kg DM to gain 1 kg live weight, whereas group B receiving urea molasses block lick required 5.30 kg DM to gain 1 kg live weight. Therefore, feeding rice straw with urea molasses block lick able to utilize more crop-residues efficiently.