Wonwanna Seangkong, Wanwisa Ngampongsai, and Saowanit Kuprasert

pp. 281 - 289

Abstract

Effects of sodium chloride and nucleic acid containing by-products supplementation on nutrient digestibility and nitrogen balance of southern native male cattle was studied. Five native male cattle, 2.5 years old with average body weight (BW) of 286±29 kg were arranged in a 5x5 latin square design. The
cattle were fed Plicatulum hay ad libitum, supplemented with concentrate (14.16% crude protein) at 1% of BW (air dry basis). Five concentrate treatments were used i.e., basal concentrate with NaCl (control), concentrate without NaCl (free salt) and three tested concentrate which were prepared by replacing NaCl in
basal concentrate with Dx-ML, NS1 and NS2. The NaCl level in control, Dx-ML, NS1 and NS2 concentrate was 2%. The amount of dry matter intake, organic matter intake, crude protein intake from hay were not different among treatments. The amount of concentrate intake in Dx-ML, NS1 and NS2 groups were significantly higher than those of free salt and control groups (36.30, 35.90 and 36.52 vs 34.60 and 34.40 gDM/kgBW^0.75/d, P<0.05). Thus caused a higher trend of total feed (hay+concentrate) intake in Dx-ML, NS1 and NS2 groups (94.40, 94.92 and 91.62 gDM/kgBW^0.75/d, respectively) than those of free salt and control groups (86.98 and 89.00 gDM/kgBW^0.75/d, respectively). The amount of organic matter intake from concentrate of NS2 was significantly higher than those in the free salt and control groups (33.60 vs 32.64 and 32.51 g/
kgBW^0.75/d). No significant differences in total organic matter intake, crude protein intake, nitrogen balance, nutrient digestibility coefficient and total digestible nutrient were found among treatments. Therefore, DXML, NS1 and NS2 might have superiority to NaCl in improving concentrate intake in southern native cattle.