Evaluation of corn gluten meal with urea as a source of supplementary nitrogen for growing calves and lambs

Three growth trials and a metabolism study were conducted to evaluate corn gluten meal—urea (CGM—urea) combinations compared to a urea control as sources of supplementary nitrogen for growing calves and lambs fed on diets based on corn cobs.In the first growth study cattle were fed individually twice daily while in the sheep growth study and the second cattle growth study, animals were fed in groups. The average daily gain and feed conversion were similar for animals given the soya bean meal (SBM) and CGM—urea supplements. Feed intakes were similar for all treatments except for growth study 1. Nitrogen retention and dry matter and protein digestibility did not differ significantly between the SBM and CGM—urea supplemented groups. Urea consistently gave inferior results in all the experiments. These results suggest that CGM—urea combination is essentially equal to SBM in supporting growth of calves and lambs.