Table 3.

Experiment 1: effect of BSS and eCAN¹ on nutrient intake and apparent total tract digestibility, and sulfur intake and retention

	Treatment2						P-value3
Item	NCTRL	U	NIT	UB	NITB	SEM	NPN	NS	B	B × N
4-d intake, kg/d
DM	8.31	8.17	7.79	8.43	7.92	0.442	0.636	0.321	0.666	0.887
OM	7.76	7.63	7.26	7.87	7.39	0.418	0.632	0.320	0.666	0.888
CP	0.81	0.98	0.94	1.00	0.96	0.043	0.002	0.353	0.714	0.953
NDF	5.11	5.00	4.71	5.18	4.80	0.323	0.609	0.306	0.674	0.907
ADF	2.52	2.46	2.30	2.54	2.35	0.162	0.576	0.288	0.690	0.931
S	0.039	0.038	0.037	0.039	0.037	0.001	0.627	0.290	0.727	0.963
Digestibility, %
DM	52.58	52.99	51.65	52.66	50.66	0.658	0.424	0.015	0.323	0.620
OM	54.09	54.87	53.59	54.28	52.69	0.601	0.727	0.021	0.222	0.795
CP	34.66	46.82	43.67	46.14	41.89	1.444	<0.001	0.014	0.401	0.707
NDF	52.09	52.22	50.81	52.40	50.98	0.536	0.419	0.012	0.744	0.990
ADF	49.36	50.16	47.25	50.25	49.30	0.737	0.881	0.013	0.155	0.193
S retention4, %	61.94	62.41	61.31	57.49	56.01	1.642	0.158	0.437	0.003	0.908

¹eCAN = encapsulated calcium-ammonium nitrate (5Ca(NO₃)₂–NH₄NO₃) – 65.1% nitrate DM basis.

²NCTRL, treatment 2.7 g/kg BW molasses; U, NCTRL + 182 mg/kg BW urea; NIT, NCTRL + 538 mg/kg BW eCAN; UB, treatment U + 58.4 mg/kg BW BSS; NITB, treatment NIT + 58.4 mg/kg BW BSS. All groups contained 10 experimental units. Means and largest SEM presented.

³Observed significance levels for: NPN, effect of NPN, NCTRL vs. the mean of U + NIT + UB + NITB; NS, effect of NPN source (excludes NCTRL); B, effect of BSS (excludes NCTRL); B × N, interaction of BSS and eCAN.

⁴S absorption was calculated as follows: 100 – (100 × (([diet iNDF] ÷ [fecal iNDF]) × ([fecal S] ÷ [diet S]))).