Seide narges Tabatabai far; mohammad reza dehghani; mohammad hassan fathi nasari
Volume 24, Issue 3 , October 2022, , Pages 313-328
Abstract
In this research, the effect of increasing the amount of alfalfa hay in the starter diet on the performance, blood parameters and health of Holstein dairy calves fed according to the milk feeding pattern by step down method using 24 female Holstein calves with 4±1 day of age and birth weight of ...
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In this research, the effect of increasing the amount of alfalfa hay in the starter diet on the performance, blood parameters and health of Holstein dairy calves fed according to the milk feeding pattern by step down method using 24 female Holstein calves with 4±1 day of age and birth weight of 41.2 ±3 kg were studied in a completely randomized design with three treatments and eight calves in each treatment for 56-days (until weaning). Experimental treatments include: 1) feeding milk without alfalfa hay, 2) feeding milk with five percent of alfalfa hay (based on dry matter of the diet) and 3) feeding milk with 10 percent of alfalfa hay (based on dry matter of the diet). there was no difference between experimental treatments in terms of dry matter intake, feed conversion ratio, daily weight gain, fecal score, skeletal growth indices and ruminal pH. The concentration of propionate in the rumen of calves fed with milk and five percent alfalfa hay was significantly higher than the control and 10 percent forage treatments (P <0.05). The ratio of acetate to propionate in the rumen of calves fed milk and five percent alfalfa forage was significantly higher than of calves of other treatments. Plasma beta-hydroxybutyrate concentration was higher in calves fed the starter containing five percent of dry alfalfa than calves in other treatments (P <0.05). According to the results of this study, replacing part of the starter of dairy calves fed with high amounts of milk and alfalfa hay improves their rumen development.
mohammad ali ahangarani; Mohammadreza Dehghani; abbas ali naserian
Volume 23, Issue 2 , July 2021, , Pages 179-189
Abstract
The aim of this research was to investigate the effect of adding fat powder and flaxseed oil in milk on performance, growth, health, blood and rumen parameters of 45 suckling calves (avarage body weight = 38 ± 0.5 kg) in a compeletly randomized design in 10℃ of average temperature from d 3 to ...
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The aim of this research was to investigate the effect of adding fat powder and flaxseed oil in milk on performance, growth, health, blood and rumen parameters of 45 suckling calves (avarage body weight = 38 ± 0.5 kg) in a compeletly randomized design in 10℃ of average temperature from d 3 to 30 of age in individual boxes. Experimental treatments included: 1- basal starter and milk without fat supplement (control) 2- basal starter and milk with fat powder (10 g/liter of milk) 3- basal starter and milk with flaxseed oil (10 g/liter of milk). Daily weight gain from d 3 to 30 and weight at d 30 were higher in flaxseed oil treatment than control treatment (P ≤ 0.05). Calves fed flaxseed oil treatment had higher hip height than control treatment at d 30 (P ≤ 0.05). Blood cholesterol concentration was higher in control treatment than flaxseed oil treatment and blood cortisol concentration was lower in flaxseed oil treatment than control treatment (P ≤ 0.05). The ratio of total protein to albumin in flaxseed oil treatment was lower than control treatment (P ≤ 0.05). Ruminal parameters were not affected by the experimental treatments. The results of this research indicated that using of fat sources including linolenic acid as flaxseed oil in milk have a positive effect on the performance, growth and health during the first month after birth of dairy calves.