1468 Comparison of two calf-rearing programs on the performance and cost–benefit ratio

Abstract

There is a deep interest in assessing different kinds of calf rearing programs based on greater rates of liquid feeding to increase ADG and to decrease age at first calving. In a complete randomized design with repeated measures, two milk feeding plans (treatments) were evaluated in 57 Holstein female dairy calves (37.3 ± 3.7 kg BW and 3 d old) during 10 wk. Treatment 1 (T1) consisted of feeding 12% of weight at 3 d in whole milk and treatment 2 (T2) a consisted of a step-down program of 20 (from 0 d to 2 wk), 15 (3–4 wk), and 10% (5–10 wk) of weight at 3 d in whole milk. Calves were fed colostrum (IgG; 100 mg/mL) at 30 min of life and after that, they were left with the cow suckling ad libitum until 3 d of life without access to solid feed. Calves were housed in individual hutches with ad libitum access to T1 (n = 28) and T2 (n = 29). From the third day, calves were offered pelleted starter feed (173.1 g CP, 460.1 g NSC, and 201 g NDF per kilogram DM) in the morning at 0700 h. Water was offered ad libitum. The calves were weaned when the intake of the starter feed was over 1.000 g/d during three consecutive days, from Day 1 to 4 after weaning half of the milk amount was given and since 5 d without milk. Body weight, DMI, ADG, days to weaning (DW), feed:gain ratio, total protein and energy intake, chest girth (CG), height at withers (HW), height at sacrum (HS), and total cost of production were measured. No differences were found (P > 0.05) on BW, CG, and HW and HS changes during the 10 wk among treatments. At the end of the trial, no differences were detected (P > 0.05) in BW, ADG, DW, concentrate DMI and feed:gain ratio, CG, and HW and HS. Calves fed T2 tended (P = 0.11) to have greater total DMI and protein DMI (79.6 and 19 kg) than calves fed T1 (73.7 kg and 17.6 kg). Calves fed T2 had greater (P < 0.05) milk DMI, ME of DMI, and cost of production (33.3 kg, 341.5 Mcal, and 105.4 USD) than calves fed T1 (28.7 kg, 312.2 Mcal, and 93 USD). Feeding with a step-down program having more milk does not support improvements of performance and increases the average cost of production.