Characteristics Tests On Urea Molasses Block Additioned With Different Adhesives

Urea Molasses Block (UMB) is a supplementary food composed of several nutritious feed ingredients needed by livestock. However, the texture is easily damaged, broken, so that the adhesive is needed. Adhesives commonly used are cement but are not safe to use so natural adhesive materials such as sago, cassava, tapioca can be used because they have a relatively high starch content. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the physical characteristics of UMB by using different adhesives. This study uses a completely randomized design factorial pattern consisting of three replications with two factors. The first factor is the type of adhesive P1 = cement; P2 = cassava; P3 = tapioca and P4 = sago. The second factor of storage time is W1 = 0 days; W2 = 7 days and W3 = 30 days. The results of this study indicate that the addition of different adhesives had no significant effect (P> 0.05) on water content and UMB density but had a significant effect (P <0.05) on the storage duration. The addition of different adhesives had a significant effect (P <0.05) on water absorption and UMB storage time. The conclusion of this study is that UMB with the use of sago flour adhesives has the best moisture content, density and water absorption and can last for 30 days.