The effect of excessive elemental sulfur addition on feed intake, digestibility, rumen characteristics, blood metabolites and nitrogen balance in Thai native beef cattle fed a diet containing high fresh cassava root

Abstract

This study aimed to study the effect of excessive elemental sulfur addition on intake, digestibility, rumen characteristics, blood metabolites and nitrogen balance in Thai native beef cattle fed diets containing high fresh cassava root (FCR) supplementation. Four Thai native beef cattle with an initial body weight (BW) of 100 ± 10.0 kg were used and randomly assigned to a 2 × 2 factorial in a 4 × 4 Latin square design. Two levels of FCR supplementation at 15 (FCR‐1.5) and 20 g/kg of BW (FCR‐2) and two levels of sulfur supplementation in concentrate at 10 (Sulfur‐1) and 20 g/kg dry matter concentrate (Sulfur‐2) were evaluated. This study showed that sulfur and FCR in combination (p < 0.05) increased dry matter and organic matter digestibility and bacterial population. Sulfur‐2 resulted in higher (p < 0.05) sulfur intake and serum thiocyanate concentration than Sulfur‐1. FCR‐2 had a greater (p < 0.05) FCR intake, total volatile fatty acids and propionate concentration than FCR‐1.5. In conclusion, excessive elemental sulfur addition with high FCR supplementation showed no negative effect in Thai native beef cattle.