Dry matter and crude protein digestibility of locallyprepared concentrates by calves at different ages

TL;DRAbstract

Thirty crossbred calves were randomly allocated to six treatments in a 3 diet 2 weaning age factorial arrangement to study the effects of weaning age and type of locally prepared pre-weaning concentrate on dry matter (DM) and crude protein (CP) digestibility at the age of 1, 2, 3 and 4 months. Diets were concentrate A, whole milk and hay (T1), concentrate B, whole milk and hay (T2) and whole milk and hay (T3), respectively. Weaning was either at 9 or 12 weeks age. The concentrates were isoenegetic and iso-proteinous (12.9 MJ ME/kg DM and 180 g CP/kg DM) but differed in the ingredients used to prepare them and were fed liberally until the consumption reached 1 kg. Milk was offered at the rate of 4l a day and reduced gradually to reach 2l at weaning. Hay and clean water were offered liberally from two weeks of age. Weaning at 9 or 12 weeks had small but insignifi cant effects on all of the studied parameters. Differences in dry matter digestibility (DMD) started at the second month of ag

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