No. Low-quality forages do not contain sufficient amounts of readily available energy to efficiently “capture” and convert the nitrogen from urea into microbial protein. Usually the amount of urea included in a forage supplement should be less than 20 percent of the total amount of protein in the supplement. In contrast, trials at Kansas State University showed that calves backgrounded on higher quality roughages, such as sorghum silage, plus 3 to 4 pounds of grain daily, effectively utilized urea as a protein source. Similarly, urea is effectively utilized as the only supplemental protein source in high-grain finishing rations.

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