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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 November 2017
Highly degradable protein diets creating high ammonia and/or urea concentrations in blood or reproductive fluids may affect reproductive performance by their toxicity to embryos (Hammon et al. 2005). Pastures in NZ during spring have high CP (170 to 273 g/kg DM) and cows on these pastures have high blood urea (36 mg/dl; Moller et al. 1993). Few studies (Ordonez et al. 2007) have evaluated association between high blood urea and reproduction of individual cows. The present study examined individual cow reproductive performance and blood urea concentration during grazing of spring pasture.