Effect of supplemental poultry offal meal on feedlot performance and carcass characteristics of holstein calves

Abstract

Forty-two Holstein bull calves (16 wk; 130 kg) were allotted equally into three poultry offal meal (POM) supplementation treatments following completely randomized design. Half of the calves in each treatment were slaughtered after a 160-d growing period and subsequently the remaining calves were slaughtered after a 100-d finishing period. The dietary treatments were continuous POM-free diets, continuous 10% POM-supplemented diets and 15% POM-supplemented diet fed during the growing phase followed by 6% POM-supplemented diet fed during the finishing phase. The results showed that calves fed on 10% POM-supplemented diet had the fastest (P<0.01) daily gain, consumed the least feed/100 kg wt, had the heaviest (P<0.01) hot carcass weight, had highest fat percentage (P<0.01) in 9-11 rib joints and were the most economical as well as efficient (P<0.01) in utilizing feed than those fed on the other two diets. © GSP, India.