Effects of Processing of Starter Diets on Performance, Nutrient Digestibility, Rumen Biochemical Parameters and Body Measurements of Brown Swiss Dairy Calves

Abstract

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.

Effects of physical form of starter and forage provision to young calves on blood metabolites, liver composition and intestinal morphology

“…In the current study, calves supplied with textured or ground starters supplemented with forage were found to exhibit enhanced feed consumption compared with those receiving pelleted or ground starter without any forage source. Previous studies (Gardner, ; Kertz et al., ; Ghassemi‐Nejad et al., ) have reported that calves consume less starter of fine particle size than of large particle size. These findings are in agreement with several other reports (Khan et al., ; Castells et al., ; Terré et al., ), emphasizing that provision of forage could promote intake and performance.…”

“…pelleted, mashed, or textured) may affect animal intake (Coverdale et al, 2004) and/or performance (Franklin et al, 2003); it can therefore potentially have indirect influences on the developmental processes, physiological responses or growth performance of calves (Khan et al, 2011(Khan et al, , 2016. For example, finely ground starter feed that is high in rapidly fermentable carbohydrates could reduce star-ter intake, ruminal pH and growth performance (Ghassemi-Nejad et al, 2012). Bateman et al (2009) reported that processing starters to reduce their fine particle content increased feed intake and resulted in improved performance of dairy calves.…”

Fatty acid profile of meat, diurnal changes in volatile fatty acids, rumen fluid parameters, and growth performance in Korean native (Hanwoo) steers fed high- and low-forage diets supplemented with chromium-methionine

“…Because of the higher concentrate ratio in 40F, a higher amount of soluble carbohydrate may result in lower pH. Ghassemi Nejad et al (2012Nejad et al ( , 2016 reported lower pH in Brown Swiss heifer and Holstein steers fed a higher concentrate ratio. Normally, pH begins to decline post-feeding and continues to fall down after 3 h. Other factors can influence pH decreasing trend, including but not limited to synchronization between Figure 2 -Diurnal changes in ruminal acetate, propionate, butyrate, and valerate acids in Korean beef steers fed low-and high-forage diets supplemented with chromium-methionine (hourly basis).…”

Interaction between the physical forms of starter and forage source on growth performance and blood metabolites of Holstein dairy calves

“…In the present study, postweaning forage provision enhanced starter intake in CM-fed calves, which was in line with the recent meta-analysis of Imani et al (2017), who showed that forage supplementation improved starter feed intake in the ground or pelleted starter-fed calves but not in texturized starter-fed calves. It is well known that the physical form of starter feed influences the rumen fermentation and pH (Imani et al, 2017), and feeding calves with finely ground starter feed high in rapidly fermentable carbohydrates reduces ruminal pH and starter feed intake (Ghassemi-Nejad et al, 2012;Pazoki et al, 2017). Similar to dairy cows, calves may experience ruminal acidosis that can be alleviated by forage supplementation (Imani et al, 2017).…”

“…Previously, Crocker et al (1998) reported that the starch digestibility was greater for steam-flaked grains than ground grains. Steam-flaking results in gelatinization of starch, rendering the starch into a more accessible form of microbial degradation in the rumen (Ghassemi-Nejad et al, 2012). Therefore, the higher FE in calves fed TF (containing steam-flaked corn and steam-rolled barley) than those fed CM starter diets could be attributed to the higher nutrients digestibility of TF starter compared with CM starter.…”