Evaluation of the potential protein-sparing effects of sodium bicarbonate when added to grass silage for growing steers

2000 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Fellner ◽  
L. E. Phillip ◽  
H. Garino

Six Hereford-cross steers were used to determine whether or not the addition of sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) to grass silage (GS) would reduce the need for supplemental protein from fish meal (FM). Grass silage (31% DM; pH 4.8) was either unsupplemented or supplemented with FM (10% of silage DM); NaHCO3 was added at 0, 2, or 4% of silage DM. Supplementation with FM increased N retention (P < 0.01) but had no effects (P > 0.10) on feed intake or digestibility of organic matter (OM). Urinary N excretion decreased (P < 0.05) linearly with the addition of NaHCO3 but due to an increase in fecal N there was no significant effect (P > 0.10) of NaHCO3 on N balance. Urinary excretion of bicarbonate (HCO3) increased linearly (P < 0.01) with NaHCO3 addition, but there was no effect (P > 0.10) on urine pH or measures of blood acid-base status. Addition of NaHCO3 increased silage pH to 6.5 but had no effect (P > 0.10) on voluntary feed intake, or digestibility of OM and ADF. The results indicate that the addition of NaHCO3 to grass silage did not spare dietary protein but led to a shift in the partition of N between urine and feces. Key words: Steers, grass silage, sodium bicarbonate, nitrogen retention

1998 ◽  
Vol 7 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 523-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. TAURIAINEN ◽  
S. SANKARI ◽  
S. PYÖRÄLÄ

Twelve Ayrshire and eight Friesian cows were randomly assigned to one of four prepartum diets in a 2 x 2 factorially designed experiment to determine the effect of anionic diet and calcium (Ca) intake on Ca metabolism, acid-base status and feed intake of grass silage based diets during the dry period. Four diets provided either 34 g or 74 g total dietary Ca/day, and were either anionic or cationic. Dietary cation-anion balance (DCAB), calculated as milliequivalents [(Na+ + K+) - (Cl- + S2-)], was -247 mEq/kg dry matter (DM) in the low DCAB group and +34 mEq/kg DM in the high DCAB group. DCAB was formulated using NH4Cl, (NH4)2SO4 and MgCl2 as anionic salts. Cows received grass silage (5.2 kg DM), hay (0.9 kg DM) and concentrate mixture (1.6 kg DM) until calving. Blood and urine samples were collected 4, 3, 2 and 1 week before the expected calving date, at calving, the day after calving and 1 week following calving. The results indicate that the reduction of cation-anion balance induced mild metabolic acidosis and increased the ability of the cow to maintain blood Ca concentration. However, DCAB should be higher since urinary pH decreased markedly (< 6) and so remarkable changes in some blood electrolyte concentrations were noticed.;


1965 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. B. Bowers ◽  
T. R. Preston ◽  
N. A. MacLeod ◽  
I. McDonald ◽  
Euphemia B. Philip

SUMMARY1. Nitrogen balance studies were made on 8 Friesian steers given allconcentrate diets containing fish meal, soya bean meal, groundnut meal or cottonseed meal.2. There were no differences in nitrogen retention but voluntary feed intake was significantly lower on the fish meal diet.3. Adjustment of nitrogen retention to constant dry matter intake resulted in significantly higher values for the diets containing fish meal and cottonseed meal than for the others.4. Rumen pH, rumen ammonia and blood urea were all much lower on the fish meal diet.


2000 ◽  
Vol 2000 ◽  
pp. 81-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.T. Adesogan ◽  
M.B. Salawu ◽  
E.R. Deaville

Pea-wheat bi-crop silages were reported to have moderate nutritive value when the proportion of peas in the sward was less than 200 g/kg (Adesoganet al., 1999). These authors also suggested that improvements in the digestibility, intake and nitrogen (N) balance of the forages may result from increasing the proportion of peas in the sward. This experiment was designed to examine this theory by determining thein vivoapparent digestibility, N retention and voluntary feed intake (VFI) in sheep of pea-wheat bi-crop silages containing different ratios of peas to wheat and harvested at two stages of growth.


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