A note on the straw intake of sheep given supplements of urea-molasses, soya bean meal, barley-urea or barley

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Abstract
SUMMARY: In the first of two trials, groups of 10 Chios lambs were fed on long or chopped straw for 13 weeks. They ate 0·61 and 0·65 kg per day, and lost a total of 7·6 and 8·5 kg body weight, respectively. Over the next 20 weeks, the supplementation of chopped straw with either 150 g of soya bean meal or a molasses-urea mixture given ad libitum increased straw intake. The decline in body weight was reversed and the lambs gained 0·04 kg/day on both treatments.In Trial 2, the intakes of straw by non-lactating ewes were 0·78, 0·78 and 0·70 kg/day with supplements of molasses-urea, barley-urea and barley only, respectively. Ewes on the barley and the barley-urea supplements gained 5·3 and 4·6 kg respectively over the 16-week period whereas those given the molasses-urea supplement lost 2·6 kg.