Seasonal variations in the total nitrogen, non-protein nitrogen and urea nitrogen contents of Friesian and Jersey milk

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Abstract
Summary A large number of samples (433) from the milk of Friesian herds was taken during the period November 1968 – September 1969, and a smaller number (159) from Jersey herds during the dairy ‘season’ September 1969 – April 1970, and analysed for total nitrogen (TN) and for non-protein nitrogen (NPN). The Friesian milk sample varied in TN from 0·456 to 0·624% (average 0·531 ± 0·021%) and in NPN from 0·024 to 0·054% (average 0·035 ± 0·004%). The Jersey samples varied in TN from 0·467 to 0·718% (average 0·584 ± 0·036%) and in NPN from 0·022 to 0·051% (average 0·033 ± 0·006%).The average NPN value for all the milks was 0·034 ± 0·005%. There was a seasonal trend in NPN and TN for the Jersey and in TN but not in NPN for the Friesian milks. The proportion of NPN as a percentage of TN varied widely – for the Friesian samples from 4·9 to 10·2% (average 6·46%) and for the Jersey samples from 3·7 to 8·7% (average 5·74%). Urea N also was estimated in 125 of the Friesian and in all the Jersey milk samples. It varied from 0·012 to 0·029% (average 0·020 ± 0·004%) in the Friesian and from 0·009 to 0·031% (average 0·020 ± 0·004%) in the Jersey samples. For all the milks the urea N as a percentage of NPN varied from 33 to 79 (average 56·5%). It is suggested that values for ‘protein content’ of milk should refer only to ‘true’ protein ((TN – NPN) × 6·38) and that in the absence of an analytical result for NPN the use of an average value such as that above would be justified.