Health performance of crossbred Indian dairy calves reared on whey-based commercial milk replacer

Abstract

Newly born crossbred calves (24) of either sex were selected and equally distributed into control, Treatment- 1(T-1) and Treatment-2 (T-2) groups for evaluating the effect of feeding milk replacer on their health performances. Control group received whole milk and skim milk as per the institute feeding schedule, whereas the T-1 and T-2 groups were fed on whole milk and milk replacer, respectively at the constant rate 1/10th of their body weight for first three months of age. The overall average daily gain in T-1 showed significantly higher average daily gain than control and T-2. Health of calves was evaluated in terms of number of calves days in diarrhoea and their fecal consistency scores (FCS). The values of FCS were significantly higher in T-2 than T-1 and control indicating that calves in milk replacer group had higher incidences of diarrhoea than other 2 groups fed on whole milk. No any major health problems or mortality were observed during the study in any of the groups. From the present study it was concluded that in spite of slightly higher incidences of digestive problems in calves during the winter months, milk replacer feeding could be a better option for commercial dairy producers and resource poor farmers in order to save the whole milk for human consumption.