PRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE OF EARLY WEANING FRIESIAN CALVES SUPPLEMENTED WITH BEE POLLEN AND BLACK SEEDS

Abstract

the current work was carried out to investigate the effect of bee pollen (BP) and black seeds (BS) as natural additives on performance of early weaning Friesian calves. Twenty-four newly born Friesian calves (12 males and 12 females) with average live body weight of 31 ± 0.26 kg were suckled their dam’s colostrum for three days and divided into six similar groups (2 males and 2 females in each group) according to their live body weight and month of birth. The experimental period lasted 180 days over three consecutive periods (60 days each). All claves were fed a basal diet consisted of whole milk, calf starter and fresh berseem during suckling period and on calf starter and fresh berseem during 1st post weaning period or concentrate feed mixture, berseem hay and rice straw during 2nd post weaning period. Group1 given their diet without any additives and served as control, while G2 and G3 groups were supplemented with 5 or 10g BP/head/day in their diets, respectively. While, the diets of G4 and G5 were supplemented with 5 or 10 g BS/head/day, respectively. Lastly, G6 group was supplemented with 2.5 g BP + 2.5 g BS/head/day. Results showed that BP and BS additives improved significantly (P<0.05) the digestibility coefficients of DM, OM, CP, CF, EE and NFE as well as feeding values (TDN and DCP) during the different experimental periods, where, the high level (10 g) of both two additives showed significantly the highest (P<0.05) values. Ruminal pH value and ammonia-N concentration were significantly lower (P<0.05), while, TVFA’s concentration was significantly higher (P<0.05) in rumen liquor at the higher levels of additives (G3 and G5) But, there were no significantly differences among G1, G2, G4 and G6. Ruminal pH value tended to decrease while, the concentrations of TVFA’s and NH3-N increased with advancing age. Likewise, the intake of DM, CP, TDN and DCP were significantly higher (P<0.05) in G3 and G5compared to the other groups. Calves in G3 and G5 recorded significantly (P<0.05) the highest live body weight, total weight gain and average daily gain followed by calves in G2, G4 and G6, whereas those in G1 had the lowest values during the different periods. The BP and BS additives significantly improved (P<0.05) feed conversion ratio for DM, CP, TDN and DCP per kg live body gain. Effectively the diets G3 and G5 showed the highest total revenue and net revenue compared to other groups. From these results, it could be concluded that both BP and BS additives at the level of 10 g/head/day for Friesian calves during suckling and post weaning periods improved the digestibility, feeding values, rumen fermentation activity, growth performance, feed conversion and economic efficiency.