ABSTRACT - This work was conducted to evaluate the effects of different concentrate levels on the parameters of at ruminal fermentation, the apparent, total, ruminal and intestinal N digestibilities, the microbial efficiency and the N balance. Five rumen and abomasum fistulated bull Holstein calves, with an initial average age of 5.8±0.7 months and initial average of 107.4±11.0 kg LW were allotted to a 5x5 Latin square design (treatment x period). The animals were housed in individual stalls and full fed diets (DM basis) containing 30.0, 45.0, 60.0, 75,0 and 90.0% of concentrate.The diets were based on coast-cross grass hay as forage and soybean meal and corn ground grain in the concentrate. The pH values were affected by the concentrate levels of the diets, and , 11.3 hours post-feeding, the minimum values of 6.10, 5.89, 5.67, 5.46, and 5.24, respectively, were estimated for the diets with 30.0, 45.0, 60.0, 75.0 e 90.0% of concentrate in the diets, respectively. The ruminal ammonia concentration linearly decreased, in function of post-feeding time and showing quadratic behavior, with a minimum values of 6.84, 7.14, 7,40, 7.63, 7.82, 8.09, and 8.00 mg/dL, for 86.31, 84.86, 83.41, 80,50, 81.95, 77.59, and 68.86% of concentrate in the diets. The number of ruminal protozoa linearly reduced as the dietary concentrate levels increased. The efficiency of microbial nitrogenous compound synthesis linearly increased, as the concentrate levels in the diets increased.
ammonia; Holstein calves; concentrate; microbial efficiency; pH; ruminal protozoa
