Effect of Graded Levels of Wheat Bran Supplementation on Intake, Nutrient Digestibility, Microbial N Yield and Growth Rate of Native Bulls Fed Rice Straw Alone

The dose response effects of different levels of wheat barn (WB) supplementation to a rice straw based diet has been studied in growing native (Bos indicus) bulls of Bangladesh. Twelve bulls of $266{\pm}29.6kg$ live weight and $32{\pm}9.5$ months old were given either of three diets of ad libitum untreated rice straw alone (T1) or straw supplemented with 2 (T2) or 3 (T3) kg WB. Besides, the experimental animals also received a mineral mixture. In 4 weeks, data were recorded on the intake, digestibility, microbial N (MN) yield, N balance (NB) and growth rate (GR). In the three diets, WB was 0 (T1), 29.6 (T2) and 42 (T3) percent of the total DM intake. With the increasing levels of WB supplementation, the total DM and OM intake increased, but the straw intake decreased linearly. WB supplementation increased the digestibilities of DM, OM and N but had no effect on ADF digestibility. The urinary purine derivative excretion and hence the MN yield increased with WB supplementation. The total MN yield were 7.26 and 35 g/d respectively for 0.2 and 3 kg WB supplementation. However, the efficiency of MN yield was highest (13 g/kg DOMR) at 2 kg WB level. Despite the increase DOM intake, the dietary ME content remain below 6 MJ/kg DM even at 3 kg WB supplementation. The NB were -84,467 and 1,620 mg/kg $W^{0.75}/d$ which were reflected on the GR of -186,346 and 554 g/d for 0, 2 and 3 kg WB supplementation respectively. Depending on the cost effectiveness, on an untreated rice straw diet, WB may be supplemented by up to 3 kg/d (42% of the diet) or more. However, if the maximum utilization of roughage is the main concern, the optimum WB level would probably be around 2 kg (30% of the diet) daily.