Infl uence of complex functional additives on the growth and development of calves

Abstract

The key to the production efficiency of enterprises engaged in the production of milk is properly reared replacement young animals, which allows systematically introducing more productive dairy cattle into the herd. The trends of recent years in the sector of rearing young Holstein cattle are obtaining average daily live weight gains of at least 850 g per day, insemination of heifers no later than 14 months, and consequently the introduction of fi rst-calf heifers into the herd at the age of 23-24 months. In order to achieve these purposes farms use various biological additives in the feeding program for heifers up to 6 months of age. The purpose of the research was to study the eff ect of complex functional additives Rumenfi t 50 and Rumenfi t 100 on the growth and development of heifers of Holstein breed. In order to conduct the experiment, 3 groups of heifers of Holstein breed were formed at the age of 2 months, selected according to the method of analog groups: control and two experimental. The heifers of the control group were fed the basic diet adopted on the farm. Animals of the 1st experimental group were added Rumenfi t 100 at the dose of 10 g/head/day to the starter compound feed, and Rumenfi t 50 at the dose of 5 g/head/day to the 2nd experimental group. On the base of the experimental data of the monthly accounting of live weight of animals, it was found that its dynamics and average daily gain were higher in the experimental groups, compared with the herdmates of the control group after the fi rst month of feeding complex functional additives Rumenfi t 50 and 100. At the same time, it is recommended to give preference to the addition of Rumenfi t 100 in the composition of compound feeds for calves during the rearing period up to 6 months of age, with the use of which higher results were obtained.