Open PRAIRIE: Open Public Research Access Institutional Repository and Information Exchange
Abstract
Most finishing diets include corn as a primary energy source. If the finishing diet consists mostly of corn, a large proportion of the protein needed by the ruminant is supplied through corn protein. A protein in corn, zein, largely escapes ruminal degradation (60%) and the ungraded fraction is passed into the small intestine for digestion. Since urea and zein act differently in supplying proteins and amino acids to the small intestine of the ruminant, an evaluation of nitrogen retention in lambs was conducted. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of diet nitrogen change, time and fasting on nitrogen metabolism by lambs fed urea or zein in a semipurified diet