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Apparent Digestibility of Nitrogen in Rumen and Whole Tract of Friesian Cattle Fed Direct-Cut and Wilted Grass Silages

Catholic University of Louvain, Department of Nutritional Biochemistry, Place Croix du Sud 3, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

ABSTRACT

Spring grass consisting of Lolium perene L. (81%), Poa pratensis L. (9%), and annual weeds (5%) was stored as direct-cut or as wilted silage and used in feeding trials to determine the effects of wilting on N utilization. Six mature Friesian cattle, fitted with rumen and simple duodenal cannulae, were fed the silages for ad libitum intake in a crossover design consisting of two 49-d periods. Wilting increased intake of organic matter and decreased ruminal apparent digestibility of organic matter and whole tract apparent digestibilities of organic matter, NDF, and total N. Rumen degradability of silage N was increased by wilting (.7 vs. .67). Direct-cut silage, in comparison with wilted silage, provided (g/d) less N intake (232 vs. 286) and lower duodenal flows of total N (215 vs. 293), non-NH₃ N (202 vs. 280), microbial N (111 vs. 177), and total amino acids (1056.8 vs. 1342.7). Duodenal flows of NH₃ N and undegraded N were not different between silages. Efficiency of bacterial N synthesis in rumen was higher for wilted than for direct-cut silage (32.3 vs. 21.4 g N/kg organic matter apparently digested in rumen). It was concluded that wilting increased silage intake, rumen bacterial synthetic efficiency, and duodenal flow of non-NH₃ N in cattle.

¹ Present address: Charlottetown Research Station, Research Branch, Agriculture Canada, PO Box 1210, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island Canada C1A 7M8.