1792 J O U R N A L OF D A I R Y S C I E N C E
utilized to combine predicted differences f o r
kilogram of milk and for kilogram of fat into
an economic index for each dairy bull. Select
th e value from Fig. 1 that represents the dairy-
man's milk pricing situation, multiply this by
the bull's predicted difference for fat, and add
it to his predicted difference for milk (no con-
version is necessary for transforming these
figures from kilograms to pounds). Where
predicted differences are adjusted for breed
average, these economic indexes can be com-
pared between bulls.
In reality a breeder should utilize what he
believes the economic situation will be in 3 to 4
years, since it will be approximately that long
before the calf from this mating will be in
production. Most economic projections indi-
cate a decline in the emphasis on f a t ; therefore,
a breeder should probably use one of the lower
Influence of Ensiling with Urea and a Methionine Analog
on the Amino Acid Composition of the Corn Plant ~
Abstract
The amino acid composition of the corn
plant was determined before and after en-
siling. The total amino acid content on a
dry matter basis increased due to the ensil-
ing process and was additionally increased
by urea and methionine analog additions.
Methionine and arginine concentrations
were lower in the control silage than in the
original plant material; however, the addi-
tion of urea or methionine analog increased
their level in silage. The concentration of
a number of other amino acids was also
increased by these additives.
Introduction
The use of corn silage as a forage f o r rumi-
nants has increased significantly in recent years
because it offers a potentially high nutrient yield
per acre (2). The report of Thomas et al. (7)
showing that corn silage continuously fed as
the only roughage for a number of lactations
will maintain normal milk production and dairy
cow health will undoubtedly provide additional
impetus to the current trend. Only limited data
on the amino acid composition of corn silage
are available; therefore, a study was conducted
1 Authorized for publication as Paper 3807 in
the journal series of the Pennsylvania Agricultural
Experiment Station, July 2, 1970.
JOURNAL O1• D A I R Y S C I E N C E ~ O L , 53, NO. 12
differential lines on the graph. These results
indicate that even under present prices, care
must be taken not to overemphasize fat in a
dairyman's selection program.
J. K. HILLERS, Department of Animal Sci-
ences, Washington State University, Pullman
99163
References
(1) l~arthing, B. R., and J. E. Legates. 1957.
Genetic covariation between milk yield
and fat percentage in dairy cattle. 5.
Dairy Sei., 40" 639.
(2) Spahr, S. L. 1967. Relative economic im-
portance of milk and milk fat percentage
in selecting artificially inseminated proven
dairy sires. J. Dairy Sei., 50: 847.
(3) Wilton, J. W., and L. D. VanVleck. 1969.
Sire evaluation for economic merit. J.
Dairy Sci., 52: 235.
to measure the effect of ensiling with or without
additives on these components of the corn plant.
Experimental Procedures
Silage corn ( P a 6 0 2 A ) middent stage con-
taining 70% moisture was chopped to approxi-
mately 1.3 cm length and ensiled in 20-titer
milk cans. Each can contained approximately
15 kg of silage. Urea or methionine hydroxy
analog (DL a-hydroxy ~,-methyl mercapto bu-
tyrate-calcium) alone or in combination were
added at the time of ensiling. The quantities
of these additions are reported in Table 1.
The Pennsylvania State Forage Testing Ser-
vice rated all the silages as excellent ~'hen the
silos were opened six weeks later. A f t e r con-
tents of the cans were emptied and mixed,
approximately 50 g of each silage was slurried
in a blendor with deionized water to form a
homogenous mixture. A representative portion
was then taken to dryness on a rotary evapora-
tor. A f t e r deternfination of the amount of dry
matter, the material was hydrolyzed in 6~ HCI
for 20 hours. Amino acids were determined
with a Beckman Model 120 C antoanalyzer. The
mnino acid composition was measured at several
dilutions for each sample to improve the accu-
racy of each determination of the minor com-
ponents. The results are in Table 1.
With the number of varieties of corn for
making silage and the extensive variation in
growing seasons and conditions of ensiling,
 T E C H N I C A L NOTES 1793

TABLE 1. Amino acid content of the corn plant before and after ensiling with various additives.
Ensiled
Urea (0.25%)
Amino acid Before No Urea MHA 1 MHA +
ensiling additive 0.25 % 0.11% 0.22 % MHA (0.11%)
(g/kg DM basis)
Tryptophan Trace Trace Trace Trace Trace Trace
Lysine 3.09 4.33 3.59 2.79 4.50 4.33
ttistidine 1.51 2.]1 2.20 2.10 2.43 1.94
Arginine 1.69 0.97 1.90 1.75 1.90 1.40
Aspartie Acid 5.52 6.93 6.64 6.19 7.17 5.92
Threonine 2.82 3.56 3.73 4.43 4.84 3.88
Serine 3.47 4.00 4.00 4.31 5.42 3.87
Glutamic Acid 10.27 10.33 11.33 13.82 16.43 11.64
Proline 4.92 5.80 7.89 6.77 7.26 7.02
Glycine 2.95 3.62 3.78 3.62 4.58 3.37
Alanine 4.90 6.82 7.01 6.97 8.59 6.82
Cystine Trace Trace Trace Trace Trace Trace
Yaline 2.04 4.51 4.55 4.55 3.72 4.31
Methionine 1.57 0.44 1.57 2.30 2.40 1.99
Iso-leucine 2.39 2.50 3.83 3.63 3.16 3.55
Leucine 6~66 9.26 9.66 9.82 9.88 9.54
Tyrosine 2.15 2.04 3.30 2.95 3.33 2.49
Phenylalanine 2.44 3.56 3.50 5.10 3.36 3.50
Total 58.39 70.78 78.48 81.10 88.97 75.57
1 Methionine hydroxy analog.

it would be desirable to obtain additional amino
acid compositional data. The marked decline
in methionine in the control silage contrasted to
the original plant material may imply an essen-
tial role for this amino acid in the fermentative
process. The action of urea in maintaining the
original level of methionine and improving that
of arginine, iso-leucine, and tyrosine could ex-
plain why urea additions to corn at ensiling
rather than at the time of silage feeding resulted
in better animal performance (3, 4).
Methionine analog in combination with the
ensiling process not only elevated metlfionine
but 12 other amino acids as well. Notably the
four amino acids which Chandler (1) calculated
to be most deficient for milk production in-
creased under these conditions. These amino
acids in the order in which they are most likely
to become limiting are methionine, valine, iso-
leueine, and lysine. Apparently the ensiling
process alone improved the concentrations of
valine and lysine while the additives were re-
quired to increase methionine and iso-leueine.
The increased concentration of total amino
acids per unit of dry matter implies an increase
in protein of the feed material as a result of
the metabolic action of the fermentation orga-
nisms. An increase in crude protein at the
expense of nitrogen-free extract has been re-
ported in corn silage to which bacitracin was
added (5). Russian workers (6) reported that.
corn silage to which 2 to 3 kg of sodium sul-
phate per ton was added at the time of ensiling
bad more individual amino acids, especially
eystine. I t is possible that a large loss of non-
protein dry matter could make it only appear
that protein increased. Seepage and spoilage
losses did not occur in these laboratory silos.
Therefore, to account for the increased amino
acids in this manner, dry matter losses due to
gas formation would have to have reached 17 to
35% of the total nonprotein material. This
seems unlikely. Gas losses of 6 to 8% of dry
mstter would be more reasonable. Of course
this point can only be established by accurate
measurement of total dry matter ensiled and
subsequently removed from the silo.
R. D. McCARTHY, G. A. PORTER, and
R. A. PATTON, Lipids Laboratory, Pennsyl-
vania Agricultural Experiment Station, Uni-
versity Park 16802
Acknowledgments
This work was supported in part by the Penn-
sylvania Department of Agriculture.
JOURNAL OF DAIRY SCIENCE VOL. 53, NO, J.2
1794 JOURNAL OF
References
(1) Chandler, P. T. 1970. Improving protein
nutrition of ruminants. Proc. Virginia
Feed Conv. Conf., p. 22.
(2) Hemken, R. W., and J. It. Vandersal]. 1967.
Feasibility of an all silage forage program.
J. Dairy Sci., 50:417.
(3) Huber, J. T., and R. A. Sandy. 1965. Re-
sponse of dairy cows fed unlimited corn
silage to three levels of urea and grain.
J. Animal Sci., 24: 887.
(4) Lassiter, C. A. 1965. Urea for dairy cattle.
17th Amer. Farm Res. Ass. Meet., Knox-
ville, Tenn.
~OURNAL ON DAIRY SCIENCE YOL. 53, NO, 12
DAIRY SCIENCE
(5) Owen, F. G. 1962. ]~ffect of enzymes and
bacitracin on silage quality. J. Dairy Sci.,
45 : 934.
(6) Palfij, F. Ju., A. hi. Lemisko, Ja. Ja. Nako-
necnaju, and N. G. Makar. 1964. Kacestvo
kukuruznogo silosa soderzaseego sernye soe-
dinenija. Yestn. sel'skohoz Nauki 9:75
(Nutrition Abstr. Rev., 35: 218. 1965).
(7) Thomas, J. W., L. D. Brown, and R. S.
Emery. 1970. Corn silage compared to
alfalfa hay for milking cows when fed vari-
ous levels of grain. J. Dairy Sci., 53:342.