Effect of Feeding Broken Rice Grains and Decorticated Cottonseed Meal on Feed Efficiency, Ruminal Activity, and Blood Constituents of Early Weaned Buffalo Calves

Abstract

Thirty-nine female ten-day-old buffalo calves were distributed among five groups: 1) control calves were weaned at 120 days and received 340 kg whole buffalo milk; 2) calves in Groups 2 and 3 were weaned at 45 days and given 103.3 kg whole milk; the last two groups were weaned at 31 days after being fed the same quantity of milk. The calves in Groups 2 and 4 were given starter ration 1 (corn, barley, linseed meal, and beans). The two other groups (3 and 5) were given starter ration 5 (corn, barley, linseed meal, beans, broken rice grain, and decorticated cotton-seed meal). Ration 1 stimulated significantly better growth and gave a higher feed efficiency than Ration 5 when calves were weaned at 45 days. Calves weaned at 31 days in general were inferior in size to those weaned late, or at 45 days. The system of early weaning of buffalo calves at 45 days after receiving 103.3 kg of milk and starter ration 1, which was gradually replaced after 45 days by Ration 2 (rice bran and decorticated cottonseed meal), has proved to be most economical, and saved about $22 per calf in 120 days, compared with the cost of rearing late weaned calves for the same period. The results of rumen microbial activity and blood constituents showed: 1) ammonia N was higher at two weeks and decreased to eight weeks of age; 2) total volatile fatty acids (VFA) increased with age up to 6–12 weeks and was higher in groups fed ration 1; 3) microbial N was significantly higher in the rumen of early weaned calves than in late weaned calves and decreased with age; 4) blood urea and ammonia N concentration were highest at two weeks of age and decreased to 6-10 weeks. Some parallelism was evident between changes in ammonia N in the rumen and blood urea and ammonia N; and 5) blood reducing sugars and hemoglobin decreased to eight weeks of age. The blood reducing sugars of early weaned calves were lower than those of the late weaned calves. © 1967, American Dairy Science Association. All rights reserved.