Effect of urea-molasses block supplement on the blood, urine and feces parameters of lactating holstein cows

This research was conducted to study the effect of urea-molasses block (UMB) supplementation, as a portion of concentrate ration, on the blood, urine and feces parameters of lactating cow. 12 multiparous Holstein cows at 66±31.54 days in milk with daily milk yield of 36.75±5.15 kg were allocated. In a Latin square based (change over) design with 4 treatments including; 0.0, 500, 1000 and 1500 g UMB/d/animal. . The treatments were tested during four experimental periods . each with 14 days adaptation and 10 days data collection.UMB blocks contained 40, 38, 10, 7, 3 and 2 percent beet molasses, wheat bran, calcium carbonate, bentonite and salt, respectively. Feed intake, in a 3 time sampling pattern throughout the sampling period, some blood metabolites 6h after feeding in the final day of each period, pH in blood and urine as well as in feces were measured. Results showed that dry matter intake were significantly (p<0.05) increased when the animals received UMB. The blood pH and blood urea nitrogen were significantly (p<0.05) affected by the treatments but glucose and albumin were not varied among the treatments. Utilization of UMB did not affect the urine pH but the fecal pH was significantly affected by the treatments.