The objective of this trial was to investigate the daily variation in the urinary excretions of creatinine, urea and purine derivatives (PD) as well as the plasma concentration of urea-N (PUN) in steers. Four castrated Holstein steers averaging 445 kg of body weight (BW) in the beginning of the trial were used in a 4 x 4 Latin square design with a 2 x 2 factorial arrangement of treatments. Animals were fed two levels of urea (0 and 100%) and two levels of concentrate (0.75 and 1.25% of BW). Comparisons between collection days were done by a split-plot design. The forage portion of the diet, which was composed by silages of elephant grass (80%) and sorghum (20%) was fed ad libitum. Microbial protein synthesis, estimated by urinary excretion of PD, was increased by feeding the high-concentrate diet while the opposite was observed when urea replaced soybean meal in the diet (high-urea diet). No significant interaction between concentrate versus urea levels was found for NUP and urinary excretion of urea-N. Different levels of dietary urea also had not effect on these same variables. Urinary excretions of urea, allantoin, and uric acid and microbial protein synthesis were not affected by the number of urinary collection days. The same was observed for creatinine excretion, which averaged 25.47 mg/kg BW, 117.92 mg/kg0.75 or 1.04 mmol/ kg0.75. It can be concluded that no more than 24 h (one sampling day) of urine collection was required to accurate determine excretion of nitrogenous compounds, which has important practical applications due to labor and costs reductions.
microbial protein; sampling urine; urinary volume
