The aimofthisstudywastoevaluateinhighproducingdairygoatstherelationshipbetween
milk urealevel(MUL)anddietcomposition,milkyield(MY),intestinaldigestibleprotein
(PDI) balance,milkNefficiencyandurinaryN(UN)excretion.Twenty-onemeantreat-
ment data,derivedfromthirteendietstestedinfiveexperimentsconductedongoats
kept inmetaboliccagestocollectseparatelyfecesandurine,wereused.Diets,ortsand
milk wereanalyzedforchemicalcomposition;urinewasanalyzedforNcontent.PDI
with Naslimitingfactorforrumenmicrobialgrowth(PDIN)wascalculatedaccording
to theFrenchsystemaswellasPDIrequirements.Relationshipsweredevelopedusing
regression analysisbasedonmixedmodelsthataccountforbetween-experimentvariation.
There weresignificantrelationshipsbetweenMUL(mg/dL)anddietarycrudeprotein(CP)
(g/kg DM):MUL=−45.3 +0.484CP(R2 = 0.914),andbetweenMULandPDINbalance(%):
MUL=22.9+0.347PDINbalance(R2 = 0.917).TherelationshipbetweenMULandMYwas
not significant.MilkNefficiencyresultednegativelyrelatedwithMULandpositivelyrelated
withMY(kg/d):milkNefficiency=33.8–0.38MUL+2.58MY(R2 = 0.869).UNexcretion(g/d)
was positivelyrelatedwithMUL:UNexcretion(g/d)=14.4+0.348MUL(R2 = 0.713).
The ureaconcentrationofgoat’smilkcanbeutilizedforafinertuningofproteinfeeding,
in ordertoimprovemilkNefficiencyandreduceurinaryNexcretion.