The aim was to evaluate the effect of different feed additives on intake, performance, and fecal consistency index (FCI) of dairy calves from 6–60 d of age and its residual effect 15 d after weaning. Fifty Holstein calves (38 ± 1.0 kg BW) were fed 5 L/d of milk plus starter feed until weaning, and corn silage and concentrate after weaning. The treatments were: control (CON), monensin (MON; 30 mg/kg of starter), probiotic
E
.
faecium
(PROB; 70 mg/kg of starter), essential oils (EO; 300 mg/kg of starter), or PROB + EO (EOPROB). Fecal score and dry matter intake (DMI) were measured daily, and animals were weighed every 15 d. A DNA extraction from feces was performed to identify the presence of microorganisms (
E
.
coli
,
Hafnia
,
Shiguella
,
Lactobacillus spp
,
Enterococcus spp
, and
Enterococcus faecium
NCIMB 10415) by PCR. Two 72-h digestibility trials were performed at days 20–28 and 50–56, by total fecal collection. The DMI before weaning was greater for EO (903.0 g/d) compared with MON (794.3 g/d) and EOPROB (783.1 g/d). The FCI decreased during pre-weaning for EO and MON. Average daily gain (ADG) and feed efficiency (FE) did not differ among treatments before weaning. After weaning, DMI and FCI did not differ among treatments. The EO had greater ADG (917.5 g/d) compared with CON (615.8 g/d) and PROB (592.6 g/d). The FE improved with EO (0.72 g/g) over CON (0.36 g/g), MON (0.49 g/g), and PROB (0.36 g/g). The PCR results showed absence of
E
.
faecium
NCIMB 10415 in animals fed PROB and CON. Animals fed PROB had greater intake of CP and NDF than animals fed EOPROB. The EO can be added to the dairy calf ration to improve fecal score and increase DMI. The pre-weaning FCI decrease with MON and increase with PROB.
The modeling of pasture production could be used as a tool to make the process of working with increasingly erratic precipitation and temperature patterns resulting from climate change easier and more accurate. This study aimed to define models to determine dry matter, leaf and stem production associated with climatic variables for Palisadegrass (Brachiaria brizantha cv. Piatã) in the grazing stratum. Four treatments were established to provide the greatest variability throughout the experiment, consisting of two light interception percentages as cutting criteria (95 and 100%) and two residue heights (15 and 20 cm). Data were collected between January 2012 and December 2013. Dry matter production day À1 (DMPd), leaf production day À1 (LPd) and stem production day À1 (SPd) were regressed against 13 climatic variables. The variables were also corrected by multiplying each variable by the relationship: real evapotranspiration/potential evapotranspiration. The backward procedure was used to determine significant variables to estimate production; then a multiple regression was fitted. When the corrected variables presented better Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC), they replaced the original variables. The analysis showed that climate variables are adequate to estimate DMPd, LPd and SPd in palisadegrass cv. Piatã, and the models should significantly contribute to pasture management across tropical regions.
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