TRIPLE SUPER PHOSPHATE AS A SOURCE OF PHOSPHORUS IN THE DIET OF GROWING BULL

The study was conducted to investigate the use of Triple Super Phosphate (TSP) as a source of phosphorus in growing cattle. Twelve indigenous growing bull (initial live weight of 150 ± 10 kg) were assigned to four dietary treatments, viz. basal diet (T 0 ) containing 0.14% P and basal diet was supplemented with TSP to provide P levels of 0.24 (T 1 ), 0.35 (T 2 ) and 0.45% (T 3 ) respectively. All diets were formulated to be iso-nitrogenous and iso-energetic. Significant (P 0.05) affected by the supplementation of P from TSP. The digestibility of CF and NFE was significantly (P 0.05) difference among the mean values for live weight gain and the highest daily live weight gain was observed for diet T 2 (69.44g) compared to the other diets T 0 , T 1 and T 3 ). The average serum P concentration of animals fed on diets T 1 , T 2 and T 3 was significantly higher (P<0.01) than that of animal fed on diet T 0 . The results suggested that supplementation of TSP as a source of phosphorus increased total DMI, digestibility of CF, NFE, P retention, P content of blood serum and live weight gain of growing calves. Therefore, supplementation of 0.21% P from TSP may be used in growing cattle ration. Key words: Phosphorus; Triple super phosphate; Growing bull DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjas.v39i1-2.9681 Bang. J. Anim. Sci. 2010, 39(1&2): 89-96