Protein, Bypass Protein and the Fate of Nitrogen

Abstract

The price of feeds have increased significantly in the last few years. Farmers are continuing to try to find ways to cut feed costs. Several things have happened in ration formulation that are going to allow us to formulate rations less expensively. We are improving our knowledge on balancing for nonstructural carbohydrate, NDF, fat and protein fractions. This will allow us to improve our accuracy in formulating rations to optimize rumen fermentation and reduce the purchase of expensive protein and fat sources. The discussion of the protein system needs to be in terms of the carbohydrates consumed. We can then examine the opportunities to fine tune the protein fractions and save money.