Effects of Silage Soluble Nitrogen Components on Metabolizable Protein Concentration: A Meta-Analysis of Dairy Cow Production Experiments

A meta-analysis based on 253 treatment means from 80 dairy cow production experiments was conducted to estimate the effects of the silage water-soluble N components on milk production, milk urea N concentration, and the efficiency of N utilization in milk production. The original experiments were conducted to study forage treatments (e.g., digestibility, fermentation quality, or wilting). Both the level and composition of concentrates were fixed within an experiment. Silage soluble N (g/kg of N) was divided into ammonia N and soluble nonammonia N, which was determined without the use of protein precipitants; that is, soluble nonammonia N as defined here encompassed proteins, peptides, and free AA. Metabolizable protein was calculated as AA absorbed from the small intestine by using constant values for ruminal protein degradability and intestinal digestibility of undegraded protein. Metabolizable energy and protein intakes were used as independent variables in regression models investigating the effects of soluble N components on energy-corrected milk and milk protein yields. A mixed regression model was used to account for between-experiment variations; that is, the response of fixed factors was studied within experiments. Silage soluble N components did not affect the energy-corrected milk yield when used in bivariate models with metabolizable energy intake. Solubility of silage N had a negative effect on milk protein yield when included in the model with metabolizable protein. However, this effect was almost completely related to ammonia N, whereas the effect of soluble nonammonia N was nonsignificant and negligible. The effects of soluble N components on milk urea N concentration and efficiency of N utilization in milk production were consistent with milk production responses. A lack of milk production responses to silage soluble nonammonia N suggested that the partition of silage N into soluble and insoluble N (excluding ammonia N) did not markedly influence silage metabolizable protein concentration. Analysis of silage N solubility has limited value in practical feed evaluation, and silage metabolizable protein concentration can be estimated with reasonable accuracy by using constant values for ruminal protein degradability and intestinal digestion of undegraded feed protein.