Table 5.
Effect of pasture type and season on in vitro nitrogen metabolism and efficiency.
| Pasture Type | Season | p-Value | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Variable | HS | LS | Autumn | Spring | SEM | P | S | P × S |
| NH3-N4h (mmol/L) | 6.11 | 8.16 | 7.92 | 6.36 | 0.410 | ** | ** | n.s. |
| NH3-N24h (mmol/L) | 10.4 | 12.9 | 13.2 | 10.1 | 0.410 | ** | ** | n.s. |
| ND (g/kg N) | 780 | 838 | 877 | 750 | 30.4 | n.s. | * | n.s. |
| MN (mg/g OM) | 14.6 | 15.3 | 15.2 | 14.7 | 0.53 | n.s. | n.s. | n.s. |
| NUE (%) | 64.1 | 54.1 | 55.2 | 63.0 | 2.21 | * | * | n.s. |
| EMPS (g MN/kg of truly digested OM) | 22.1 | 20.9 | 19.3 | 23.8 | 1.30 | n.s. | * | n.s. |
HS: high sugar pasture; LS: standard cultivar pasture; SEM: standard error of the mean; P: pasture type; S: season; P × S: interaction between pasture type and season; NH3-N: ammonia nitrogen (mM); ND: nitrogen digestibility (g/kg); MN: microbial nitrogen (mg/g OM); NUE: nitrogen use efficiency (%); EMPS: efficiency of microbial protein synthesis (g MN/kg of truly digested OM); p *: p ≤ 0.05; **: p ≤ 0.01; n.s.: not significant; Values on the same row followed by different letters present significant differences.