Abstract
Textured vs pelletted feed impact on dairy heifers pre-weaning
Highlights
Calves management has been demonstrated to exert a major effect on the rearing costs, due to the high requirements in terms of care time expenditure and nutrition handling, especially during the preweaning period
height at withers (HW), height at rump (HR), RW and CRF at each interval were covaried for their value at the beginning of the experiment, while average daily gain (ADG), weight increment, starter intake and Crude protein intake (CPI) were covaried for Body weight (BW) at the beginning of the trial
The fecal score was monitored within the experimental period as health indicator, and no significant differences were found between groups, with average values of 1.99 in the Texturized feedstuff” (Te) group and 1.86 in the Pelleted feedstuff” (Pellet) group (Figure 1)
Summary
Calves management has been demonstrated to exert a major effect on the rearing costs, due to the high requirements in terms of care time expenditure and nutrition handling, especially during the preweaning period. Under artificial rearing, an even and balanced transition from liquid to solid feeding allows the physical and metabolic development of the rumen, the improvement of the salivary apparatus, the rumination behavior onset and tissues adaptation. This represent a key factor to achieve levels of solid feed consumption and digestion capable to sustain growth during and after weaning (Khan et al, 2011). The present field-controlled study is aimed at comparing the impact of textured and pelleted starters on growth performances during the artificial weaning of replacing female calves including the evaluation of economic aspects related to the application of the two different feedstuffs physical forms
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