Influence of ruminal degradable intake protein restriction on characteristics of digestion and growth performance of feedlot cattle during the late finishing phase

Table 3 Treatment effects on ruminal pH, VFA molar proportions and BUN

	Urea fermentation potential			P – value
Item	0	0.6	1.2	Linear	Quadratic	SEM
Ruminal pH	5.75	5.86	5.84	0.51	0.59	0.10
Ruminal N-NH (mg/dL)	5.37	4.69	3.89	0.05	0.91	0.56
Total VFA (mM)	95.9	105	94.2	0.83	0.21	5.4
Ruminal VFA (mol/100 mol)
Acetate	46.8	49.2	57.5	0.08	0.54	4.6
Propionate	36.1	30.1	20.3	0.04	0.74	5.7
Isobutyrate	1.19	1.17	0.89	0.30	0.60	0.23
Butyrate	12.0	15.1	17.7	0.17	0.93	3.1
Isovalerate	1.53	1.77	0.83	0.19	0.20	0.41
Valerate	2.36	2.63	2.83	0.42	0.95	0.48
Acetate:propionate	1.34	1.85	2.94	0.05	0.63	0.59
Methane¹	0.35	0.44	0.60	0.04	0.70	0.09
BUN (mg/dL)	4.43	2.80	1.45	<0.01	0.53	0.25

¹Methane production (mol/mol of glucose equivalent fermented) was estimated based on the theoretical fermentation balance for observed molar distribution of VFA [16].

ISSN: 2055-0391