Effect of rejected Eucheuma cottonii level in complete feed on nutrient intake and digestion, blood metabolites, and body weight gain of early weaning Bali calves

Abstract

Effect of rejected Eucheuma cottonii level in complete feed on nutrient intake and digestion, blood metabolites, and body weight gain of early weaned Bali calves was studied. Twelve Bali calves aged 4 months with average early body weight 40 kg and standard error 1.3 kg were used in this experiment. Completely randomized design was applied with four treatments and three replications. The treatments were CT0 (complete feed without Eucheuma cottonii, CT5 (complete feed plus Eucheuma cottonii 5%), CT10 (complete feed plus Eucheuma cottonii 10%), and CT15 (complete feed plus Eucheuma cottonii 15%). The results on nutrient intake indicated that there were no significantly differences (p>0.05) among treatments by Bali calves. There were also no significant differences (p>0.05) of treatments on crude protein and fiber digestibility, however, digestibility of DM, OM, EE, and NFE were same among 5, 10, and 15 % level of rejected E. cottonii in complete feed. There were significantly different (p<0.05) of treatments on blood urea, glucose, protein, Mg, and K of Bali calves. Providing rejected E. cottonii 15% in the complete feed produced generally the highest blood urea, glucose, protein, Mg, and K of Bali calves. There were no significantly different (p>0.05) of treatments on body weight gain and body linear measures of Bali calves. It was concluded that 1) dry matter and other nutrient intake were the same between early weaned Bali calves consumed complete feed with or without rejected E. cottonii, 2) digestibility of DM, OM, EE, and NFE of complete feed differed among treatments. The lowest digestibility of DM, OM, EE, and NFE were at early weaned Bali calves consumed complete feed without rejected E. cottonii. Digestibility of CP and CF were same among early weaned Bali calves consumed both with and without rejected E. cottonii, 3) blood urea, glucose, protein, Mg, and K concentration differed among treatments. The lowest blood urea, glucose, protein, Mg, and K concentration were at early weaned Bali calves consumed complete feed without rejected E. cottonii. The highest blood urea, glucose, protein, Mg, and K concentration were general at early weaned Bali calves consumed complete feed with 15% rejected E. cottonii, 4) daily body weight gain and linear body measures were same among early weaned Bali calves consumed both with or without rejected E. cottonii.