NitroShure™
The Care and Feeding of the Microbiome
NitroShure Precision Release Nitrogen uses Balchem’s proprietary encapsulation technology to provide a more consistent nitrogen supply to rumen microbes, allowing for greater flexibility in feeding programs. It’s a valuable tool for helping producers and nutritionists to reduce ration costs while increasing the amount of high-quality protein available to the cow.
In many ways, feeding the rumen microbiome is more complicated than feeding the cow. When the nutritional needs of the rumen microbes are consistently met, desirable microbes will flourish, increasing rumen efficiency and microbial protein production while helping to maintain a stable rumen environment. When those needs are not met adequately, desirable microbe populations will decrease, allowing lactic acid-producing microbes to proliferate. These undesirable microbes can reduce rumen pH, leading to acidosis and decreased rumen productivity.
Just like a TMR for dairy cows, a properly balanced diet for the microbiome delivers adequate quantities of important nutrients to the microbes in synchrony, throughout the day. For microbes, these important nutrients include nitrogen sources such as ammonia, which is the preferred source of nitrogen for fiber digesting bacteria. It also includes carbohydrates like sugars, starch and cellulose that degrade at different rates and thus become available at different times throughout the day. It is important to synchronize the availability of nitrogen in the form of ammonia (NH3) with the availability of the carbohydrates.
Key Benefits of NitroShure
NitroShure Precision Release Nitrogen is a valuable tool for helping producers and nutritionists reduce ration costs while increasing the amount of high-quality protein available to the cow.
- Improve Digestible Protein Yield and Quality – Replace low-quality proteins with NitroShure. Synchronizing nitrogen release with available carbohydrates in the rumen leads to improvements in high-quality, microbial protein production.
- Improve Fiber Digestion and Dry Matter Utilization – Microbial mass and activity is increased when available carbohydrate and nitrogen is balanced, resulting in greater dry matter utilization, fiber digestion and volatile fatty acid production.
- Create Ration Space – Replace less dense sources of protein with NitroShure to create approximately 2 pounds (0.9 kg) of dry matter space in the diet. The additional space can be used to increase dietary levels of forage, non-fiber carbohydrate or other key ration ingredients to improve milk and milk component production.
- Lower Ration Costs – Replace more expensive protein sources with NitroShure to reduce purchased feed costs
Economics:
Studies show that NitroShure Precision Release Nitrogen is proven to help fill the nitrogen availability gap between fast release urea and slower nitrogen release of traditional protein sources to better synchronize nitrogen and carbohydrate availability in the rumen. Balancing nitrogen and carbohydrate availability can increase rumen microbial populations and fermentation efficiency, improving fiber and carbohydrate digestibility and microbial protein yield. Research studies show that improvements in rumen fermentation can lead to increases in milk yield and component production.