Effect of restricted milk feeding on growth performance in cross bred calves

Abstract

An experiment was conducted with eighteen cross bred calves below one week of age for 150 days to assess the effect of restricted milk feeding on growth performance in cross bred calves. Calves were divided into three groups (group I, II and III) as uniformly as possible. Calf starter prepared as per BIS specification formed the experimental diet. Calves of group I, II and III were fed with whole milk up to twelve, eight and four weeks of age respectively at the rate of 1/10th of their body weight from birth to six weeks of age, 1/15th of the body weight from seven to eight weeks and 1/20th of body weight from nine to twelve weeks of age. Good quality green grass was fed ad libitum. Body weight gain, daily dry matter consumption, feed conversion efficiency, cost per kg gain, digestibility of nutrients and haematological parameters such as haemoglobin, plasma protein, plasma glucose, serum calcium and serum phosphorus were the criteria employed for the evaluation. Average daily gain and total weight gain, respectively were 300g and 45 kg for group I, 307.78g and 46.17kg for group II, 321.67g and 48.25kg for group III and the values were not significantly different (P>0.05). Average daily dry matter intake (kg/day) was 1.19, 1.10 and 1.31 kg respectively for group I, II and III and there was no significant difference (P > 0.05) among the groups. Feed to gain ratio for group I, II and III was 4.14, 3.59 and 4.23 respectively and was not significantly different (P>0.05) among the groups. The digestibility coefficient of nutrients observed was 77.74, 74.14, and 73.75 for dry matter, 81.51, 79.66, and 79.15 for crude protein, 84.41, 82.83, and 82.80 for ether extract 84.55, 81.97, and 81.20 for NFE, 65.08, 58.92, and 58.19 for NDF and 54.38, 46.97 and 45.64 for ADF for group I, II and III respectively. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) between the groups in the digestibility of any of the nutrients studied. The haematological parameters such as haemoglobin, plasma protein, serum calcium and serum phosphorus did not show any significant difference (P >0.05) among the groups. A significant reduction (P<0.01) in plasma glucose values was observed at second, third and fourth month in early weaned groups than in control group. The cost per kg gain was Rs. 88.14, 65.62 and 53.95 for group I, II and III, respectively. There was a saving of Rs.22.52 and Rs.34.19 for group II and III, respectively compared to the control group. On a critical evaluation of results obtained in the present study, it was revealed that calves fed milk up to 28 days registered similar body weight gain, dry matter consumption, feed efficiency, digestibility of nutrients and haematological parameters at least cost, compared to the late weaned calves. On summarizing the overall results of the study, it could be inferred that cross bred calves can be successfully weaned from milk as early as four weeks of age with out any adverse effect on their growth performance as they had superior economical efficiency and similar biological efficiency to calves received milk up to eight or twelve weeks of age.