UMMB Technology: A boon for dairy farmers

Manoj Sharma

Deputy Director ( Training)

Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kapurthala

drmanojsh1@gmail.com

Introduction:

The lower average productivity of milch animals is mainly due to low genetic

potential for milk production, poor nutrition and poor management and care of the

animals. Dairy animals are fed on poor quality crop residues, which are not only

deficient in nitrogen, minerals and vitamins, but also have poor digestibility due to

presence of lignin in them. Hence, proper feeding of the animals is essential for

improving their production potential. Most of the small-scale dairy farmers’ animals

survive on crop residues namely rice straw, wheat straw, maize stalks and natural

herbage like grass, tree leaves etc. Such feeding practice does not provide adequate

nutrients to the animals for improving their growth and exploiting their full production

potential. In general, low quality crop residues are deficient in fermentable nitrogen,

carbohydrates and important minerals. Thus, prevailing practices of keeping dairy

animals solely on wheat straw and a small amount of poor grade concentrate is not

satisfactory. Use of urea as a non-conventional source of non-protein nitrogen for

ruminal micro-organisms is well known. In India, urea has been fed to cows and

buffaloes in the form of uromol (Chopra et al., 1974), urea molasses liquid

supplement (Kaur, 1993) and urea-treated straw (Bakshi, Gupta and Langer, 1986).

However, the labour and other costs involved in the preservation, transport and

feeding of the end product made some of these methods unpopular and precluded

their wider adoption by farmers.

Urea-molasses mineral blocks (UMMB) are relatively free from these

constraints and provide nitrogen over a longer period of time than any other urea

source. For supplementing the poor diet such as wheat straw / paddy straw or any

other crop residue-based diet of large and small ruminants, the use of urea–

molasses mineral block (UMMB) licks has been recommended by many livestock

researchers. The main aim is to improve the nutritive value of the traditional straw-

based diet, which promotes healthy growth and milk productivity of dairy animals.

Urea molasses mineral block technology

For efficient digestion of crop residues in the rumen, it is essential that a

certain concentration of ammonia-nitrogen be maintained in the rumen. This level is

difficult to achieve on a crop residues-based basal diet. In this regard, the

technological innovation of the UMMB has been an important breakthrough for

enhancing the productivity and nutrition of dairy animals. The UMMB is essentially a

feed supplement that provides soluble nitrogen, fermentable energy and minerals to

micro-organisms in the rumen. It consists of urea, molasses, some proteins, minerals

and gelling agents. The major advantage of using UMMB is improvement in the

digestive efficiency of ruminants, which brings many direct and indirect benefits as

under:

improvement in the utilization of dry fodder and low wastage of fodder by the

animals

improvement in milk production and milk fat content,

better physical growth,

improvement in reproductive efficiency etc.,

improvement in the utilization of dry fodder and low wastage of fodder by the

animals,

UMMB production technology

UMMB block consist of Urea, Molasses, wheat flour, mineral mixture, deoiled

mustard cake, deoiled rice polish, salt. To develop three (3) kg block add required

feed materials in given quantities (Table 1). Mix this material thoroughly. Add Guar

gum as binding agent. Add CaO at last, it will generate heat and make the mixture

into gel like form. Take this material immediately out of container and put into square

structures and compress it. Care should be taken while putting gel like material into

required structures so that it should not loss its heat otherwise block will lose its

shine and smoothness. After four to five hours block will be ready to use.

Table 1 : Material required along with their quantity for developing UMMB lick

Material Quantity

Urea 300g

Molasses 900g

Wheat flour 450g

Mineral Mixture 450g

Deoiled mustard cake

300g

Deoiled rice polish 300g

Salt 125g

CaO 175g

Advantages of technology

1. Ingredients used for preparing UMMB are easily available.

2. Method of preparation is very easy and UMMB prepared by this method has

long shelf life on storage at a dry place.

3. Density of UMMB is much higher than the ingredients, which facilitates long

distance transportation, at a cheaper rate.

4. UMMB blocks are suitable for supplementing dry fodder based diets for

sustainability of ruminants during fodder scarcity periods.

5. Licks are hard enough to control gradual intake.

6. UMMB is much cheaper than the conventional source of proteins

Method of use

Some important guidelines towards the optimum utilisation of urea-molasses

mineral blocks as supplements for forage based diet are described below. Urea

molasses blocks should not be fed alone but only as a supplement. They require a

minimum amount of roughage to ensure that the animals are not over fed and

thereby avoid urea poisoning.

Species of livestock

Because the blocks contain urea they must only be fed to ruminants (buffalo,

cattle, goats and sheep) and never to monogastric species (chicken, donkeys,

horses, pigs, rabbits) or to young, especially pre-ruminant calves, kid goats and

lambs.

Feeding period

The aim of the block is to improve the utilisation of low quality roughages,

especially during and at the end of the dry season, when livestock are often

dependent on crop residues or low quality dry season grazing, which are both low in

crude protein and high in fibre. Therefore, the production and distribution of blocks

should be limited to these critical periods. There is no advantage in offering blocks

when green forage is available, as during the wet and early dry seasons. To avoid

wasting resources they should not be made available at these times.

Minimum roughage requirements

Urea-molasses blocks are only supplements. Therefore, they should not be

fed alone. A minimum quantity of roughage is needed to ensure that the animals do

not consume too much urea, possibly leading to urea poisoning. One should

remember that the purpose of the block is to improve the utilisation of roughage and

not to substitute it.

Adaptation of animals

The full daily ration of the block (e.g. ± 700 g/day per adult cow) should not be

offered as soon as the feeding period starts but should be built up to over a period of

at least 7-10 days. This is particularly important when animals have suffered a

degree of underfeeding as intake can be more rapid than usual. Animals not used to

urea and also eating rapidly are the most likely to suffer from urea poisoning. After

the adaptation period animals will adjust their intakes to around those recommended

earlier (cattle, 700 g/day: small ruminants, 100 g/day). An easy way to restrict intake

during the adaptation period is to limit the amount of time the blocks are accessible

to an animal. A rule of thumb would be to offer them for one hour per day (or about

200 g for cattle and 30 g for small ruminants) during the first 3-4 days, followed by

three hours per day (or about 400 g for cattle and 60 g for small ruminants) during

the next 4-6 days. Thereafter, blocks can be offered ad libitum.

Conclusion

UMMB supplementation is an effective method of correcting nutrient deficits in

poor quality roughages. Its use as a supplement improves productivity of local and

crossbred cows reared on straw-based diets. High-cost concentrates can be

replaced by UMMB licks. It has been shown that milk production could be sustained

by providing UMMB without any concentrate up to 5 kg of milk per day. UMMB

supplementation can be recommended to improve the nutritional status of cattle fed

straw-based diets. There is a need to extend this technology to a greater number of

farmers through intensive extension efforts.