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In an N balance experiment with male crossbreeding lambs at an age of 3 ... 4 months four different rations were given differing in energy concentration (high greater than 700 EFU cattle/kg DM and low less than 650 EFU cattle/kg DM) and in the energy source (sugar, starch or crude fibre) with crude protein intake being almost equal. The rations contained 2% urea. Microbial protein synthesis in the rumen was assessed according to ROTH and KIRCHGESSNER (1978) (1), RYS et al. (1975) (2) and BICKEL-BAUMANN and LANDIS (1986) (3) on the basis of allantoin excretion in urine. The highest ruminal protein synthesis quotas were 868 ... 921 mg protein N per kg LW0.75 in (2). In (3) 723 ... 766 mg protein N/kg LW0.75 were synthesized. From the 15N labelling of the supplemented urea and the excreted allantoin it could be calculated that 26 ... 40% of the microbial protein resulted from the urea-N of the ration. Despite a high crude protein content of the ration of between 16 and 17% in the DM and a relation of NPN: pure protein of 0.95 the utilization of the NPN in the ration was relatively high but slightly lower than the utilization of pure protein. The variants with higher energy concentration showed as a tendency higher allantoin excretion in spite of slightly lower dry matter intake and a slightly higher NPN utilization than the variants with lower energy concentration.

Low values for urea were found in samples of ruminal fluid of sheep fed concentrate rations if urea determination was carried out by the urease method. The present paper describes a both simple and sensitive colorimetric method of analysis using diacetyldioxime. The method is suitable for determining urea in coloured solutions such as ruminal fluid or silage extracts.

Lambs of an age of 2 or 4 months and of an average live weight of 14.7 and 27.4 kg resp. received rations consisting of 44% cereals, 46% dried sugar beet pulp, 6% wheat starch, 2% urea and 2% mineral-vitamin mixture. The crude protein content was 17.1 and 15.9% resp. in the dry matter, that of native crude protein 10.6 and 9.4% resp. During a 6-day N balance period 8 and 16 g 15N urea resp. with a 15N excess (15N') of 9.26 and 9.40 atom-% were fed orally instead of commercial feeding urea. There were no significant differences between the two age groups with regard to the digestibility of the organic matter and the crude nutrients. The average N balance of 372 +/- 85 mg/kg LW 0.75/day were in the intermediate range of N retention capacity and accounted for 26 +/- 5% of the consumed N. N retention in per cent. was slightly lower in younger lambs. Projections of urea utilization in a quasi stationary state resulted in an efficiency of the utilization of 33 +/- 4%. The dismembering of the lambs at the end of the main period showed between 0.02 and 0.22 atom-% 15N' in the total N, TCA precipitable N and amino acid N of the meat. At between 0.24 and 0.38 atom-% 15N' they were highest in the heart and jaw muscles. The quota of 15N' amounts found in the total N of the meat were 10.6 +/- 3% of the 15N-intake and 20.1 +/- 5.1% of the 15N' amount remaining in the body. The bones contained 7.7 +/- 1.7% and the fleece 7.9 +/- 3.1% of the 15N'-intake. Generally seen, the total N and urea utilization was slightly lower in younger lambs than in older ones.

The average time the test feed remains in sheep was determined with ewes during three stages of the reproduction cycle. The feed was labelled with 51Cr2O3. Experiment conditions are described under which the experiments can be carried out within the permissible limits.

In an experiment 12 lambs of the merino species were divided into 4 groups. The variants HE received 740 or 718 EFU cattle/kg DM and the variants NE 689 or 671 EFU cattle/kg DM. The different energy concentrations resulted from differentiated quotas of dried sugar beet chips and wheat starch supplements. Within the variants, sub-variants with (HESZ, NESZ) or without (HES, NES) sugar supplements were formed. Due to varied DM intake, the average energy intake in all groups was 42 EFU cattle/kg LW0.75. N balance experiments using 15N-labelled urea were carried out, and 15N accumulation of N excretion was projected to a steady state. The partial utilization of pure protein and NPN in the ration was ascertained with the help of a 3-pool compartment model of N utilization in ruminants. In the non-amino acid N pool HE utilized 84% of NPN and NE 77% for the synthesis of amino and nucleic acids. The efficiency of protein synthesis in the amino acid N-pool were in HESZ 64%, HES 70%, NESZ 70% and NES 73%, resp. The total utilization of NPN is the sum of the partial utilization in the two pools, whereas the total utilization of pure protein is calculated from the true digestibility and the efficiency of the utilization in the AA-N pool. The total utilization of NPN for the synthesis of protein for the protein pool amounted to 40/35/41/33% and that of pure protein to 54/51/49/50%. Energy intake being identical, energy concentration did not have an influence on the utilization of pure protein and NPN, whereas NPN utilization was better in rations containing sugar. The pure protein in the ration was by 19 ... 52% better utilized than NPN.

In two digestion experiments with wethers and seven feeding experiments with 198 fattening bulls with rations rich in (greater than 55% of the dry matter intake from roughage), the influence of the antibiotic monensin on the digestibility of the ration, on rumen-physiologic characteristic values and on fattening and slaughtering results was investigated. The digestibility of the organic matter and the crude nutrients was not significantly influenced by the use of monensin (20 mg/kg dry matter). The administration of 200 mg monensin per fattening bull and day resulted in an increase of the molar concentration of propionate in the rumen fluid by 9.7 mol%, the concentration of acetate and butyrate decreased by 7.3 resp. 2.8 mol %. On an average of the seven experiments the intake of dry matter was diminished by 5.1% through the use of monensin, the live weight increase remained almost unaffected (3.0% additional increase), feed and energy requirement per kg live weight were improved by 7.9%. The fattening results do not always correspond in the various experiments. The results of the dressing of the carcass, the composition of the carcass and the quality of the meat remained unaffected by the administration of monensin.

The target of the investigations was to register part of the synthesis performance in the rumen of ewes during the complete reproduction cycle. With the help of in-vitro experiments with artificial rumen the concentration and production rates of volatile fatty acids in the rumen fluid were measured. From the experiments the measured data of fertility-accentuated crossbreeding (experiment 1) and crossbreeding (experiment 2) ewes were contrasted. The average concentrations of volatile fatty acids in ewes are 95.4 m mol/l in experiment 1 and 109.2 m mol/l in experiment 2 during the early stage gestation, 121.4 m mol/l in experiment 1 and 99.8 m mol/l in experiment 2 in the last stage stage of gestation, 129.6 m mol/l in experiment 1 and 112.8 m mol/l in experiment 2 during lactation and 106.6 m mol/l in experiment 1 and 112.9 m mol/l in experiment 2 during the dry period. The production rates of volatile fatty acids calculated form their concentration amount to 4.8 m mol/l X h in experiment 1 and 2.6 m mol/l X h in experiment 2 in the early stage of gestation, 3.5 m mol/l X h in experiment 1 and 3.1 m mol/l X h in experiment 2 in the last stage of gestation, 3.2 m mol/l X h in experiment 1 and 2.7 m mol/l X h in experiment 2 during lactation and 3.7 m mol/l X h in experiment 1 and 2.9 m mol/l X h in experiment 2 in the dry period. The correlation between the concentration and the production rate of volatile fatty acids is not significantly negative in either of the ewe experiments. The scattering of the individual values is wide so that the individual influence of the test animals as well as the influence of the in-vitro method used permit the conclusion that a significant statement on the influence of the genotype and the stage of reproduction on the production rates cannot be made.

Subsequent to a growth experiment with intensively fattened lambs the value of the carcasses of 4 animals each from 7 groups was determined. The control groups with mixed fattening feed for lambs and the groups with wheat and barley mixtures containing urea showed higher carcass yields, net gains, fat percentage and padding, dry matter and fat content of the carcass and lower quotas of important cuts as well as a lower crude protein content in the carcass than groups with grain without urea and groups with straw. This is due to the higher weight gains of the first-mentioned groups. There were no significant differences in the carcass characteristics between the animals of the control group and the grain-urea groups. The carcass quality of the male lambs was better than that of the female ones.

In a digestibility experiment with 4 X 4 calves the animals received 100 g mixture for calves, 50 g dried green fodder and either 656 g dried whole milk and 164 g dried skim milk (VM) or 656 g dried whole milk and 164 g added fat. The added fat consisted of a mixture of tallow and lard in a 1:1 ratio plus 10% emulgator ES 20 (FE) or 8% ES 20 and 2% soybean lecithin (FL) or 25% lard, 25% tallow, 40% rape/sunflower oil with 10% ES 20 (FO). The apparent digestibility of the fat amounted to 91% in group VM and in groups FE/FL/FO to 66/70/67% resp. The composition of fatty acids and the use of an unsuitable charge of dried skim milk are considered to be the causes of the low apparent digestibility. The apparent digestibility of the fatty acids decreased with their growing chain length. The higher digestibility of the unsaturated fatty acids is largely caused by changes due to bacterial activity in these fatty acids in the intestines and by the influence of metabolically changed faecal fat. The combination of the synthetic emulgator with lecithin did not improve fat digestion but diminished the total fat content in the blood.