This trial wasconducted to investigate the replacement of soybean meal with a mixture of ureaplus cassava scrapings on nutrient intake, digestibility, and production ofcrossbred lactating cows fed diets containing forage cactus (Opuntia ficusindica, Mill), sorghum silage, and concentrate. Eight crossbred holstein:zebucows averaging 60±30 days in milk and initial body weight (BW) of 491kg were randomly assigned to two replicated 4 × 4 Latin squares and werefed diets with increasing levels of urea plus cassava scrapings: 0, 33, 67 or100%. Replacing soybean meal with urea plus cassava scrapings linearly decreasedthe intakes of DM (kg, % BW and g/BW kg0.75), OM, CP, EE, NDF, andTC. However, the increasing dietary levels of urea plus cassava sacrapings didnot affetc the intakes of NDF (% BW), ADF, NFC, and TDN. Apparent digestibilitiesof all nutrients showed significant quadratic effects with increasing urea pluscassava scrapings. Milk yield, milk yield corrected for 4.0% fat and milk fatyield all decreased linearly by 30, 20 and, 0.8 g/day, respectively, while fatcontent and feed efficiency, expressed as kg of 4.0% fat corrected milk/kg ofDM, were not changed by decreasing soybean meal in the diet.
