Urea Supplementation Increases Crude Protein and Alters pH but Does Not Affect Ruminal Degradability of Opuntia Silages

Fabiola Méndez-Llorente, Marco A. López-Carlos () and Jairo I. Aguilera-Soto
Additional contact information
Fabiola Méndez-Llorente: Unidad Académica de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia, Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, Zacatecas, Carretera Panamericana Zacatecas-Fresnillo Km 31.5, El Cordovel, Gral. Enrique Estrada, Zacatecas 98500, Mexico
Marco A. López-Carlos: Unidad Académica de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia, Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, Zacatecas, Carretera Panamericana Zacatecas-Fresnillo Km 31.5, El Cordovel, Gral. Enrique Estrada, Zacatecas 98500, Mexico
Jairo I. Aguilera-Soto: Unidad Académica de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia, Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, Zacatecas, Carretera Panamericana Zacatecas-Fresnillo Km 31.5, El Cordovel, Gral. Enrique Estrada, Zacatecas 98500, Mexico

Agriculture, 2025, vol. 15, issue 21, 1-17

Abstract: The nutritional potential of Opuntia forage is limited by its low crude protein (CP) content. Urea supplementation enhances low-quality forages, but its application in Opuntia silage and its influence on ruminal degradability are limited. This study evaluated the effects of urea addition (0, 20, 40, 60, or 80 g/kg of dry matter (DM)) and ensiling duration (0, 4, 8, 16, 24, or 28 d) on the silage pH and in situ DM degradability of four Opuntia species. Silage pH was influenced by both species and urea level, with greater values observed in silages treated with urea at 80 g/kg DM. The effective degradability of DM (EDDM) was influenced by Opuntia species and was reduced at the highest urea level. In contrast, the ensiling period beyond 12 d did not affect EDDM, and pH stabilized for all treatments after this point. Urea supplementation increases CP content and modifies silage pH but does not improve ruminal degradability. It is recommended that the addition of urea in Opuntia silages should not exceed 60 g/kg DM to avoid reduced fermentative quality. A study limitation is the absence of fermentation end-product data, which would offer a more complete quality assessment.

Keywords: in situ degradability; non-protein nitrogen; semi-arid regions; silage quality; fermentation kinetics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/21/2285/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/21/2285/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:15:y:2025:i:21:p:2285-:d:1786138

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().