Animal Sciences Commons^™

Effect Of Incremental Urea Supplementation Of A Conventional Corn Silage-Based Diet On Ruminal Ammonia Concentration And Synthesis Of Microbial Protein, S. E. Boucher, R. S. Ordway, N. L. Whitehouse, F. P. Lundy, Paul J. Kononoff, C. G. Schwab

Department of Animal Science: Faculty Publications

One primiparous and 3 multiparous lactating Holstein cows fitted with ruminal and duodenal cannulas were used in a 4 × 4 Latin square design to determine the efficacy of adding urea to a corn silage-based diet on ruminal fermentation and microbial protein synthesis. Dietary treatments were 0, 0.3, 0.6, and 0.9% urea in diet dry matter (DM); urea was manually top dressed and incorporated into the ration. The basal diet contained (DM basis) 52% forage (with 61% of forage provided as corn silage) and 48% concentrate ingredients. The basal diet was formulated to meet National Research Council (NRC, 2001) requirements …