Influence of different protein level feeding on growth performance and body measurements in preweaned crossbred calves

Introduction

Lack of proper feeding, management and care of calf during early age leads to poor growth and delayed age of puberty and age at first calving. Milk is most expensive and most essential feed for calf which costs around 40% of the rearing costs of calves from birth to weaning (Boulton et al., 2017) [3] . Calves raised on a high level of nutrition reaches calving age earlier and produced more milk in the first lactation (Bar-Peled et al., 1997) [2] . Studies suggest early weaned calves had a higher feed consumption than conventional weaning and encouraged the rumen development (Khan et al. 2007; Kehoe et al., 2007) [10,9] . Thus, calf starter feeding is an important tool to promote early rumen development. Therefore, milk can be diverted for human consumption. Tissue growth is largely a function of protein deposition in bone and muscle, with corresponding mineralization of the protein matrix in bone (Drackley, 2008) [8] . Thus, this experiment was planned to determine the effect of feeding high protein concentrate at an early age with restricted amount of milk feeding on growth performance of crossbred calves.

Materials and Methods

This experiment was conducted at Livestock Research Station (LRS), College of Veterinary Science & Animal Husbandry, Anand Agricultural University, Anand, Gujarat. This experiment was conducted in August to December, 2020 during which maximum and minimum temperature was 28.6-35.0 and 14.6-26.1 °C and relative morning and evening humidity recorded was 79-93 and 37-80%, respectively. The calves were cared for and managed as per directives of IAEC. In this experiment, for the duration of 84 days, eighteen newborn crossbred (Holstein Friesian 75% × Kankrej 25%) calves of either sex were divided into three groups randomly and sequentially on the birth weight basis with the average ± SE, 32.27 ± 1.96, 32.452 ± 1.32 and 32.26 ± 1.98 kg in T1 (Commercial concentrate: 18% CP), T2 (Commercial concentrate: 25% CP) and T3 (Farm made concentrate: 25% CP) respectively.

The calves were housed in the well-ventilated barn with an individual feeding facility built in a north-south orientation. The feeding schedule of concentrate to calves is as per Table 1. Colostrum was fed immediately after birth and then in equals half at the morning and evening for three days continuously @ 4 liters a day. The concentrate and dry roughage were offered at 9:00 hour's in the morning in a plastic bowl, starting with 100g/day and ensuring ad libitum intake from the 8 th day onwards. The calves were offered ad libitum water daily at 10:00 and 15:00 h. The proximate analysis of all concentrates, dry and green fodders was done as per AOAC (2005) [1] . The calves were dewormed on 15th, 30th and 60th day of the experiment with a broad spectrum dewormer. The body weight of calves was recorded at birth, then every week on the electrical weighing balance in the morning at 06:00 am before feeding and watering. The difference between the present body weight and body weight taken the previous week had been considered as the total weight gain during that week and subsequently, daily weight gain was calculated. The body measurements were recorded at birth and after that biweekly intervals till 84th day of age by placing the animal squarely on all four feet with the head in an upright position with a standard measuring tape. The heart girth measurements were taken by placing the tape around the animal at the point of smallest circumference just behind the forelegs passing through the position of withers. The body length of the animal was measured from the point of shoulder to the pin bone and the height at withers was determined by placing a ruler on the point of withers and measuring the perpendicular distance from the ground to the ruler.

Statistical Analysis

The data generated during the experiment were analyzed following completely randomized design (CRD) as per statistical method described by Snedecor and Cochran (1994) [15] .

Results and Discussion

Composition of Feeds and Fodders

The chemical composition of feeds and fodders is given in Table 2. The crude protein content of concentrate mixture was 17.62, 24.18 and 24.60 in T1, T2 and T3, respectively.

It also indicated that crude protein and ether extract level in T1 commercial concentrate was lower than T2 commercial concentrate and T3 farm formulated concentrate but was higher in total ash. A comparison of high protein concentrates (T2 and T3) revealed higher ether extract and calcium in T2 compared to T3. The level of calcium and phosphorus was sufficient to meet the requirement of growing crossbred calves.

Growth performance

Results of growth performance showed that overall body weight, weight gain and average daily gain were significantly (p < 0.05) higher in the group T2 fed with commercial high protein concentrate compared to the groups T1 and T3, commercial low protein concentrate and farm made high protein concentrate, respectively. The body weight and body weight gain were not influenced by feeding calf starter containing CP from 18 to 25% (Ozkaya and [12,16,17,5,11,13] , which contraindicated the present findings. Whereas the body weight and body weight gain of calves were significantly influenced by CP% in calf starter (18-25%), which supported the present findings (Drackley, 2002; Brown et al., 2005; Rincker et al., 2011) [7,4,14] .

Body Measurements

Mean height at wither and mean heart girth were not significantly influenced by treatments. However, in animals of T2 group, body length (cm) was significantly (p < 0.05) 2.03 and 3.16% higher than animals of T1 and T3 groups, respectively. This indicated that good quality of calf starter was required for skeletal development. The difference in body measurement viz. height at wither and heart girth were not influenced by protein% of calf starter (Drackley, 2002; Stamey et al., 2012; Casper et al., 2017; Daneshvar et al., 2017) [7,16,5,6] , which supported the present finding except for body length. However, different scientists (Brown et al., 2005; Rincker et al., 2011; Ozkaya and Toker, 2012; Zothanpuii et al., 2015) [4,14,12,17] reported significant effect of protein% (18-25) of calf starter on body measurements (WH, HG, and BL) which contraindicated the present finding except for body length.

Conclusion

Feeding of calf starter with different sources and level of crude protein has significant (p < 0.05) effect on mean body weight (kg), mean average daily gain (g/d) and total weight gain (kg) when calves are fed with commercial concentrate: 25% CP (T2) compared to calves fed with commercial concentrate: 18% CP (T1) and farm made concentrate: 25% (T3). The height at wither and heart girth were not significantly influenced by treatment and interaction of treatment and period. The body length of animals of T2 group was significantly (p < 0.05) higher by 2.03 and 3.16% than animals of T1 and T3 groups, respectively.

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