Science: Urea for Feed

Cattle fed on synthetic urea like it and grow fat. This announcement from the University of Wisconsin last week concluded its five-year study of the nutritive value of synthetic urea, opened a new era in feeds, perhaps in foods. Urea is a reasonably priced, simple nitrogen compound made chemically from nothing more than ammonia and carbon dioxide. Not a protein, synthetic urea is so closely related to protein that it can replace a major part of the vegetable proteins in cattle feed. Urea is manufactured in large quantity for use in many types of plastics and as a rich fertilizer. Caution: Urea is not digestible by farm animals which, unlike cows, do not have four stomachs.