H I G H - L E N E L U R E A F E E D I N G TO D A I R Y C A T T L E . I.

EFFECT OF HIGH-LEVEL UREA FEEDING ON T H E G R O W T H A N D

METABOLISM OF GROWING D A I R Y H E I F E R S WITHOUT
SULFUR SUPPLEMENTATION 1

C. A. L A S S I T E R , R. M. G R I M E S , C. W. D U N C A N , AND C. 1[p. t I U F F M A N
Departments of Dairy and Agricultural Chemistry,
Michigan State lTniversity, t~ast Lansing

SUMMARY
Twenty-four Holstein dairy heifers wer~ used in a 150-day trial to study the effect
of feeding grain rations containing 3.0, 5.0, and 7.0% urea upon growth, feed consmnp-
tion, and metabolism. Ground corn cobs were fed as the sole source of roughage. As
the levels of urea in the ration increased, the consumption of corn cobs decreased, although
not significantly, and daily gains and feed efficiency decreased significantly. The aver-
age daily gain for heifers fed rations containing 3.0, 5.0, and 7.0% urea were 1.14, 0.85,
and 0.64 lb. per day, respectively. The level of urea in the ration did not significantly
affect nitrogen retention or blood levels of urea nitrogen, but as the intake of urea in-
creased, blood serum levels of nonprotein nitrogen increased significantly and the levels
of serum proteins significantly decreased. The possibility of a sulfur deficiency in a
ration containing either 5.0 or 7.0% urea was discussed.

Numerous reports, as reviewed by Reid (11), indicate that m a t u r e ruminants

can utilize urea as a source of nitrogen for growth. I n most of these experiments,
urea did not compose more than 4% of the ration and did not supply more
than 30-40% of the total nitrogen (1,2, 3, 6, 13). Reid (11) reviewed work at
the Georgia station in which dairy heifers were fed rations containing 4.5%
urea. The urea-fed heifers gained 1.0 lb. of body weight daily as compared with
1.4 lb. per d a y for heifers fed a ration in which cottonseed meal supplied most
of the protein. Reid ( H ) stated that a difference in n u t r i e n t intake existed an:l
that this could account for the differences in growth. I n a second trial when the
nutrient intake was balanced, the urea-fed heifers gained 1.4 lb. and the cotton-
seed-meal heifers 1.6 lb. per day. Urea supplied about 70~0 of the total protein
equivalent of the ration d u r i n g this latter trial. Recently, Iowa workers (4)
formulated a beef cattle supplement containing 10% urea. H a r t et el. (7) re-
ported that calves (250-290 lb.) fed rations in which urea supplied 61 or 70%
of the total nitrogen had diuresis.
The purpose of this study was to determine the maximum level of urea that
could be efficiently utilized by growing dairy heifers.

EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
Twenty-four Holstein dairy heifers were selected and divided into three
groups, after considering body weight, age, and condition, for use in a 150-day

Received for publication May 7, 1957.

1Published with the approval of the Director of ~be Michigan Agricultural Experiment
Station as Journal Article No. 2072.
281
282 c.A. LASSITER ET AL

f e e d i n g t r i a l to e v a l u a t e h i g h - l e v e l u r e a f e e d i n g . T h i s s t u d y was c o n d u c t e d i n
t w o t r i a l s . N i n e h e i f e r s w e r e u s e d in T r i a l I a n d 15 h e i f e r s were u s e d in T r i a l I I .
A l l of t h e h e i f e r s were f e d g r o u n d c o r n cobs as t h e sole r o u g h a g e a t an a p -
p r o x i m a t e r a t e of 2 lb. p e r 100 lb. of b o d y w e i g h t d a i l y . A d j u s t m e n t s w e r e m a d e
in f e e d i n g d u r i n g t h e e x p e r i m e n t , b u t t h e a m o u n t of f e e d offered was a l w a y s
t h e s a m e f o r each g r o u p . E a c h g r o u p was f e d one of t h e e x p e r i m e n t a l s u p p l e -
m e n t s ( T a b l e 1) at a r a t e to e q u a l M o r r i s o n ' s (10) m i n i m u m p r o t e i n s t a n d a r d s
a n d 110% of the m i n i n m m T.D.N. s t a n d a r d s .

TABLE 1
Composition of experimental cattle supplements
Rations
Ingredients 1 2 3 Corn cobs
(lb.) .......................
Ground yellow corn 58,9_5 719.5 849.5
Soybeal oil meal 300.0 159.0
Urea 30.0 59.0 70.0
Diealeium phosphate 6(}. 0 60.0 60.0
Trace salt~ 20.0 20.0 20.0
Vitamin A ,'rod D concentrate)' 0.5 (1.5 0.5
Tot'd 1,000.0 1, OOI).0 1,000.0
Chemical an-dysis (%)
Dry matter 88.6 88.9 88.6 85.4
Crude protein 26.2 25.8 25.1 2.6
Crude fiber 2.8 2,2 2.0 28.6
Ether extract 2.7 3.2 3.0 0.5
N-free extract 48.0 49.7 50.5 52.4
Ash 8.9 8.0 8.0 1.3
T.I).N. ~ 70.6 69.3 68.0 ........
Nitrogen supplied by urea 30.0 50.0 70.0
Sulfur 0. 171 0.14l 0.112 0. 027
'<Salt plus iodine and cobMt.
I, 10,000 I.U. of vitamin h and 1,250 LU. of vit~mfin D per g. of concentrate.
~.Morrison (10).

T h e h e i f e r s w e r e w e i g h e d f o r t h r e e c o n s e c u t i v e d a y s , a t t h e b e g i n n i n g of
the experiment and at 30-day intervals thereafter. Nitrogen balance trials were
c o n d u c t e d on each h e i f e r once p e r m o n t h , u s i n g a s i x - d a y collection p e r i o d . B l o o d
s a m p l e s were t a k e n p r i o r to the b e g i n n i n g of t h e e x p e r i m e n t s a n d a t 2-wk.
i n t e r v a l s t h e r e a f t e r , a t a p p r o x i m a t e l y t h e s a m e t i m e each d a y , a n d a n a l y z e d
for blood urea nitrogen, serum nonprotein nitrogen, and total serum nitrogen.
T h e c o m p o s i t i o n of t h e e x p e r i m e n t a l s u p p l e m e n t s , as well as t h e c o r n cobs,
is s h o w n ( T a b l e 1). T h e m a j o r d i f f e r e n c e in t h e t h r e e e x p e r i m e n t a l g r a i n m i x -
t u r e s was in tile a m o u n t of n i t r o g e n s u p p l i e d b y u r e a . I n R a t i o n s 1, 2, a n d 3,
u r e a s u p p l i e d 30, 50 a n d 7 0 % of t h e t o t a l n i t r o g e n , r e s p e c t i v e l y .

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

D a t a s h o w i n g effects of d i f f e r e n t levels of u r e a f e e d i n g on f e e d c o n s u m p t i o n
a n d b o d y w e i g h t c h a n g e s a r e p r e s e n t e d ( T a b l e 2). No s i g n i f i c a n t differences
e x i s t e d b e t w e e n g r o u p s in r e s p e c t to f e e d c o n s u m p t i o n , b u t as t h e u r e a p e r c e n t a g e
 H I G H - L E V E L U R E A F E E D I N G TO C A T T L E . I. 283

TABLE 2
Effect of high-level urea feeding on the average .feed consumption, feed efficiency,
and body weight gains of growing dairy heifers
Daily Initial Final Daily Feed per
Group Feed feed weight weight gain lb. grain
(No.) (lb.)
1 Corn cobs 13.0 590 762 l. 15 15.0
Supplement 4.1
2 Corn cobs 12.6 594 722 0.85 19.6
Supplement 4,1
3 Corn cobs 12.1 591 687 0.64 25.2
Supplement 4.0
L.S.D.--1% N.S. 0.18 N.S.
L.D.D.--5% N.S. 7.2

of the rations increased there was a tendeney for the eonsnmption of corn cobs
to decrease. This was p a r t i e u l a r l y t r u e d u r i n g Trial I, with heifers fed Ration 3.
The heifers on this ration exhibited periods of off-feed and severe d i a r r h e a for
about the first 3.5 mo. of the trial. A f t e r this time, the heifers ate normally.
E v e n though the heifers fed Ration 3 consumed slightly less feed t h a n heifers
on Ration 1 d u r i n g Trial II, the n a t u r e of this off-feed eondition was not as
severe as in Trial I, nor did the heifers exhibit the diarrhea eondition. Heifers
fed Rations 1, 2, and 3 consumed 56, 93, a n d 127 g. of u r e a per day, respectively,
or 8.3, 14.1, and 19.8 g. of urea per 100 lb. of body weight.
As is shown (Table 2), as the urea content of the rations increased, the daily
rate of gain and feed effieieney of the heifers decreased significantly. This de-
creased rate of growth was evident t h r o u g h o u t the experiment for the heifers
fed high levels of urea nitrogen. Some differences between trials in respeet to
growth rate were observed, but these differences did not a p p e a r to be significant.
As shown in Table 1, the grain rations were not supplemented with sulfur. I t
should be noted that as the u r e a content of the rations inereased, the s u l f u r
content decreased. Several workers, including Thomas et al ( 1 2 ) , observed t h a t
rations fed to sheep containing u r e a require s u l f u r supplementation. J o n e s and
H a a g (8) r e p o r t e d inconclusive results which showed t h a t sodium sulfate m a y
improve the utilization of u r e a in a ration containing 3% u r e a and with an
over-all sulfur content of 0.13%. Jones et al. (9) and Davis et al. (5) failed to
confirm this observation. The t y p e of ration fed and its original s u l f u r content,
however, would be i m p o r t a n t faetors in determining whether cattle need s u l f u r
supplementation.
I f the sulfur content of R,ations 2 and 3 had been equal to t h a t of Ration 1,
it is quite possible that these heifers would have shown i m p r o v e d growth r a t e s ;
possibly equal to those of the heifers fed Ration 1. Studies are now in progress to
test this hypothesis.
The level of u r e a nitrogen intake had v e r y little effect on the retention of
nitrogen or the efficiency of nitrogen utilization (Table 3). This observation in
relation to decreased growth rates with high-level n r e a feeding is difficult to
 C. A. L A S S I T E R ET AL
284

TABLE 3
Effect of high-level urea feeding on the average nitrogen retention of growing dairy heifers
Ration No. 1%
1 2 3 L.S.D.
Daily nitrogen intake (g.) 100.5 99.5 95.9 N.S.
Daily nitrogen excretion (g.) 54.1 49.3 50.8 N.S.
Daily nitrogen retention (g.) 46.4 50.2 45.1 N.S.
Retention of intake (%) 46.2 50.5 47.0 N.S.

explain. Digestion trials were not conducted, but calculations based upon the
total intake and excretion of dry matter (feces plus urine) failed to show any
great differences among rations. Heifers fed Rations 1, 2, and 3 utilized 61.5,
61.7, and 59.4%, respectively, of the dry matter intake. These differences among
rations were not statistically different.
The effect of highdevel urea feeding on various blood nitrogen and protein
constituents is shown (Table 4). The high intakes of urea nitrogen did not have

TABLE 4
Effect of high-level urea fl~eding on the blood lcl~els of urea nitrogen, .~erum nonprotein
nitrogen, and ,serum protein oJ" growing dairy heifc~r,s"
Group No.
Wee.ks on 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3
experiment Urea nitrogen Nonprotein nitrogen Serum protein
(rag. %) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (%)
0 16.4 16.7 16.8 28.0 27.5 26.7 7.09 7.(18 6.70
2 8.2 15.2 11.8 22.1 24.7 24.8 6.87 6.67 6.49
4 6.1 12.1 10.7 21.4 25.0 26.4 6.71 6.74 6.38
6 5.9 11.0 11.7 20.0 25.9 27.3 6.94 6.87 6.42
8 7.2 12.2 11.7 22.6 24.2 25.8 6.65 6.66 6.49
10 9.2 9.7 8.4 21.8 24.6 24.0 6.55 6.49 6.09
12 9.4 11.1 12.0 23.7 25.1 27.9 7.05 6.75 6.55
14 9.0 12.1 9.5 22.9 23.9 25~0 6.86 6.57 6.33
16 7.4 6.9 9.5 19.7 21.6 24.6 6.71 6.71 6.30
18 5.5 7.0 5.8 22.9 21.9 19.8 7.39 7.15 6.60
20 8.7 7.1 7.2 20.8 21.8 17.0 7.02 6.69 6.19
Average 7.5 9.3 9.5 21.8 23.9 24.3 6.87 6.73 6.38
L.S.D.--I% N.S. 1.8 0.07

a significant effect on blood urea nitrogen, although these differences did ap-
proach sigttificance. The concentration of blood urea nitrogen showed a tendency
to increase as the intake of urea nitrogen increased. Similar significant trends
existed for serum nonprotein nitrogen. The concentration of serum protein
decreased significantly as the intake of urea nitrogen increased. These phenomena
a p p a r e n t l y indicated a disturbance of protein metabolism when high levels
of urea were fed.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Tile authors wish to express appreciation to Dr. D. F. Green of Allied Chemical Dye
Corporation, New York City, for supplying the urea used in this study.
 HIGH-LEVEL UREA FEEDING TO CATTLE. I. 285

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