ABSTRACT:In order to investigate the effect of physical forms of starter diets on performance, weaning age, nutrient digestibility and rumen biochemical factors, 24 female of neonatal Brown Swiss calves (average body weight of 39.51.2 kg) were randomly assigned to three treatments. Dietary treatments were mashed (MS), pelleted (PS), and texturized (TS) starter using 8 calves from birth till 90 days of age in each treatment. Diets were formulated to be iso-nitrogenous with 21% crude protein. Based on the experimental results, calves that received PS and TS diets, had significant higher average daily gain (ADG) than those receiving MS (p<0.01). Dry matter intake in calves fed PS and TS was greater than calves fed MS (p<0.05), but there was no significant difference in feed efficiency. Treatments had no effect on initiation of rumination. Weaning age of calves in MS was longer than the other two treatments (p<0.05). Crude protein and organic matter digestibility in MS treated calves were lower than other treatments (p<0.05). No differences were observed in neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and ash digestibility among treatments (p>0.05). Ruminal pH was higher (p<0.01) in MS than the other groups, but ruminal ammonia (g/dl) concentration was not different among the treatments. Body measurements such as body length, pin width, hip width, pin to hip length, size of metacarpus and metatarsus bones, hip height, wither height, stomach size and heart girth were not significantly different among the treatments. Overall, it is concluded that starter diets in the form of pellet and texture can improve performance in neonatal Brown Swiss calves compared to the mashed form.

The present research aims to investigate the effect of Pleurotus florida fungi cultivation on chemical composition, gas production characteristics, organic matter digestibility (OMD), metabolizable energy (ME), net energy lactation (NEL) and short-chain fatty acid

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An experiment was conducted by eight lactating Holstein cows with an average milk production of 32.75 kg day(-1) and body weight of 643.6 kg to evaluate the effects of propylene glycol (PG) on productive performance, blood metabolites and nutrients digestibilities. In this experiment a balanced change-over design with four treatments and four periods with 21 days were employed. Treatments included: (1) Control (without PG), (2) 250 g PG/cow/day, (3) 500 g PG/cow/day and (4) 750 g PG/cow/day. Daily milk yield recorded and milk samples were taken during seven and two last days of each period. The results show that dry matter intake, milk yield, fat corrected milk yield, milk compositions were not affected (p > 0.05) by different levels of PG. Supplementing diets with 500 and 750 g PG/cow/day, significantly increased plasma glucose (p < 0.05) but other blood metabolites such as blood urea nitrogen, triglyceride and cholesterol were not affected (p > 0.05) by PG. Apparent digestibility of dry matter and organic matte was not affected (p > 0.05) by PG administration. In conclusion, plasma glucose was increased by using 500 and 750 g PG/cow/day (as powder) in the first and mid lactation stage, but the levels of 250 g PG/cow/day did not have any significant effect on dry matter intake, milk yield, milk compositions and other blood metabolites.

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of different levels of green tea waste extract (GE) on ruminal degradability and intestinal digestibility of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), and starch of barley grain. Therefore, barley grain was treated with 0 as control, and 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% of GE. The potential of DM degradability (a + b) of barley grain treated with 15% and 20% of GE was significantly lower compared to other treatments (Linear [L] P < 0.05). The lowest (a + b) fraction of CP degradability was found in the barley grain treated with 20% GE (L P < 0.05). The (a + b) fraction and effective degradability of starch in barley grain treated with 15% and 20% of GE were significantly lower than those in other treatments (L and quadratic [Q] P < 0.05). The highest intestinal DM, CP, and starch digestibility were associated with barley grain treated with 10% GE (L and Q P < 0.05). Based on recent results, processing barley grain with GE leads to a decrease of DM, CP, and starch degradability. The treatment of 10% GE improved intestinal digestibility of the aforementioned nutrients; therefore, it can be used to protect barley grain against ruminal degradability.

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