The Effect of Textured Starter Feed with Low and High Determination of Protein to Energy Ratio on Digestibility, Rumen and Blood Parameters of Holstein Calves

Subject Areas : Journal of Animal Biology

Ali Esmaili ¹ , Amirdavor Faruzandeh ² , Hossein Omidi-Mirzaei ^{3 *} , Mohammad Karimi ⁴ , Behzad Akhlaghi ⁵ , Kian Sadeghi ⁶

1 - Department of Animal Sciences, Isfahan Branch (Khorasgan), Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran
2 - Department of Animal Sciences, Isfahan Branch (Khorasgan), Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran
3 - Department of Animal Science, Isfahan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, AREEO, PO Box 81785-199, Isfahan, Iran
4 - Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran
5 - Department of Animal Science, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran
6 - Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran

Received: 2023-06-26 Accepted : 2023-08-22 Published : 2024-02-20

Keywords: digestibility, Holstein calves, starter feed, Textured feed, Rumen and blood parameters,

Abstract :

The current study was conducted to evaluate the interaction between different levels of protein and feed structure on performance in calves. Accordingly, a total number of 48 Holstein calves (A mixture of both sexes) were randomly assigned to 4 dietary treatments with 12 replicate pens, based on a factorial design. Dietary treatments consisted of 1) ground starter with % 18 CP, 2) ground starter with % 22 CP, 3) texture starter with % 18 CP and 4) texture starter with % 22 CP. In this study, digestibility of nutrients, rumen and blood parameters of suckling calves were measured. The interaction between the main effects for the amount of beta-hydroxybutyrate in the blood on the 70th day of the experiment was significant (p < 0.05). In this way, flour feed with 18% protein had the lowest amount of beta-hydroxybutyrate. The interaction between the main effects for other blood parameters was not significant (p < 0.05). The interaction between the main effects for ruminal parameters and digestibility was not affected by the form and protein level of the initial feed (p < 0.05). In general, there was no significant difference between the textured feed and coarse grinding, and the protein level of 18 and 22% was not observed in the tested groups.

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