Digestibility and use of nutrients in young cattle when feeding sapropel-mineral additive

The purpose of the research is to analyze the metabolism of farmed young cattle of the Simmental breed against the background of feeding sapropel, a mineral supplement. The experiment is organized on farmed young cattle of the Simmental breed in the conditions of the Lonkur farm. The study of the digestibility of nutrients and the analysis of the efficiency of the use of nitrogen, calcium and phosphorus were carried out in accordance with the generally accepted methods of M.F. Tomme (1969) and A.I. Ovsyannikova (1976). The conditions of cultivation and maintenance of experimental animals in the experiment were the same and corresponded to the requirements of zootechnical research. During the experiments, it was found that animals from the second and third experimental groups receiving a sapropel mineral supplement in different norms surpassed the first control group in all coefficients of digestibility of the main nutrients of the diet. The coefficients of assimilation of nitrogen, calcium and phosphorus of the experimental groups exceed the indicators of the control group (without additives): the efficiency of using feed nitrogen from incoming by 0.23 and 0.30%, and from digested nitrogen by 0.43 and 0.75%. At the same time, the efficiency of calcium use increased by 5.24 and 6.83%, and phosphorus by 10.08 and 14.76% (P0.95). Thus, it was found that the inclusion of a sapropel mineral supplement has a positive effect on the digestibility of basic nutrients, while improving mineral metabolism in the body, which shows the prospects of using this additive in feeding cattle of the Simmental breed in Yakutia.