NITROGENOUS CONSTITUENTS IN THE URINE OF CATTLE, SHEEP AND GOATS

Ten samples of urine from dairy cows, five from sheep and four from goats were analysed to assess the distribution of urinary nitrogen (N) among various chemical constituents in order to gain a better understanding of the reactions undergone by urinary N in soil. Total N in the cow urine ranged from 6.8 to 21.6 g N litre-1, of which an average of 69 % was present as urea, 7.3 % as allantoin, 5.8 % as hippuric acid, 3.7 % as creatinine, 2.5 % as creatine, 1.3 % as uric acid, 0.5 % as xanthine plus hypoxanthine, 1.3 % as free amino acid N and 2.8 % as ammonia. In the sheep urine, total N ranged from 3.0 to 13.7 g litre-1 of which an average of 83 % was present as urea; creatine accounted for 5.3 % of the N; hippuric acid and allantoin both accounted for 4.3 %, while each of the other constituents amounted to less than 1 % of the total N. The goat urine was similar to the sheep urine but with a lower ratio of creatine to creatinine and a somewhat higher proportion (2.0 %) of the total N as amino acid.