Can urea be fed to livestock?

Can urea be fed to livestock? As a nitrogen additive for ruminants such as cattle and sheep, urea can be decomposed into ammonia by microorganisms in the rumen of cattle and sheep, and transformed into bacterial protein, which is then absorbed and utilized, so it can replace part of the protein beverage. But urea is not protein after all, and its utilization efficiency is often affected by many factors, one of which is that the level of crude protein in feed should not be too high. If the crude protein content in feed is high, the rate of bacteria using urea to synthesize protein will not decrease. The experiment shows that when the crude protein content in the feed is 9%-10%, the utilization rate of urea in the rumen can reach 70%, which can increase the weight gain of cattle and sheep by more than 36%. With the increase of crude protein content in feed, the effect of adding urea is getting smaller and smaller. Feeding urea will affect weight gain and even reduce body weight. In winter and spring, farmers mostly feed cattle with crude feed such as wheat straw, dry corn straw and hay, and the content of crude protein in the feed is mostly between 9% and 11%. Therefore, the effect of adding urea is very obvious, while cattle and sheep mostly eat green feed in summer, the content of crude protein in green feed is generally between 12% and 20%, and the digestion and utilization rate of crude protein is more than 70%. Therefore, feeding urea to ruminants such as cattle and sheep in summer, which is mainly green feed, is often counterproductive. Click to get more nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium application techniques click to get more fertilizer application techniques