Twelve purebred and crossbred Holstein cows were allotted to three 4 x 4 Latin Squares to evaluate the intake, apparent digestibility of nutrients, milk production and composition, ruminal pH and ammonia. The experimental diets were based on corn silage (CS) (AG 1051) with forage:concentrate ratio (F:C) of 60:40, in dry matter (DM) basis, or based on sugar cane (SC) (RB 855536) with F:C of 60:40 with .35 or 1% of urea+ammonium sulfate (AS) mixture or F:C of 50:50 with 1% of urea+AS. DM intake was 17.8, 14.9, 14.4, and 15.8 kg/day, for the diets, respectively. DM intake was higher, resulting in greater nutrient intake for CS based diet, except for the non fiber carbohydrates intake, which showed higher intake for SC based diet with 50% concentrate. Milk production (MP) was higher for the CS based diet, with no difference in MP among the SC based diets, with mean values of 22.0, 19.0, 18.6, and 20.1 kg/day and the 3.5% fat corrected milk production was 23.0, 19.7, 19.4, and 21.3 kg/day for the CS, SC .35%, SC 1% and SC 1% 50:50, respectively. Milk composition was not different among the experimental diets and milk fat contents were 3.8, 3.8, 3.8, and 3.9% for the CS, SC .35%, SC 1% and SC 1% 50:50, respectively. No difference on apparent digestibility of DM, organic matter, crude protein and total carbohydrates among the diets was observed. The neutral detergent fiber (NDF) apparent digestibility was higher for the CS based diet (47). There was no difference in NDF digestibility among SC based diets, 32, 31 and 31%, respectively. Inside each time (before and three hours after the morning feeding) there was no difference of pH values and amonia nitrogen compounds (N-NH3) among the diets.
ammonia nitrogen; corn silage; milk yield; NDF intake
