Evaluation of imposing a weekly fast on calves receiving a milk replacer diet once and twice daily: protein and energy utilization

[Data on artifical rearing of dual-purpose calves belonging to the dairy-beef type. 2. Effect of single or twice daily milk feeding and omission of Sunday milk feeding]

The authors carried out a 2x2 factor trial to investigate in which way different regimes of drinking and the feeding of a concentrate mixture at 2 levels of nutrition would affect the general development, food consumption and nutrient utilization of the calves or would influence their state of health and their behaviour in the period of milk feeding, and after weaning, up to the age of 6 months. No significant differences in the average liveweight were noted between th groups of calves that were milk fed once or twice daily and those milk fed once or twice daily with the exception of Sundays. The feeding of 2 types of concentrated food significantly influenced the liverweight of the calves only at the time of weaning. Significant differences in weight increases were only noticed with regal to the average daily weight increases until weaning, i.e. between the groups of animals receiving milk feeds twice daily, with the exception of Sundays, and the groups fed different types of concentrate mixtures. The different kinds of feeding did not influence the amount of solid food consumed by the animals, nor did it affect the level of nutrient utilization and the general behaviour of the animals. It was found that in the animals receiving milk once daily,except Sundays, the symptoms of diarrhea observed in the early phase of milk nutrition disappeared more slowly than in the outher animals.

[Changes in the nutrient and energy content in defined parts of the veal calf (author's transl)]

In a study on the nutrient and energy content of defined parts of the body, five veal calves each were slaughtered at the start and at the end of two fattening periods with liquid diet. The whole body weight of the three groups of veal calves averaged 56, 96, and 151 kg. All body organs and parts resulting from slaughtering and partitioning were weighed, divided among 11 groups of cuts, and analyzed for dry matter, crude protein, ether extract, ash and energy. The various cuts showed different weight gains in relation to live weight. Blood, hide and gastrointestinal tract and also total meat increased about proportionally to live weight, the innards and bones developed more slowly. During the 12-week fattening period the percentage of total meat of the carcass increased from 68 to 72, the percentage of adipose tissue from 3 to 8. Over the same period the percentage of bones decreased from 26 to 19. The groups of organs and tissues showed considerable differences in nutrient content. With an increase in ether extract concentration from 39 to 69% of fresh matter during fattening, the adipose tissue of finished calves contained 13 times the amount of ether extract of animals at the start of fattening. The deposition of fat in the skeleton, in contrast to the soft tissues, already reached the maximum level in the weight range under 100 kg. Among the four defined groups of lean meat there were no major differences in crude protein and ash. In the total meat crude protein content declined from 20.4 to 19.3%, ash content from 1.7 to 1.3% of fresh matter during fattening. The total protein content amounting to 13.2 kg in the group after finishing reached 2.7 times the level of the inital content. At the same time the fat content of the total meat increased from 2.4% initially to 7.7% at the end. The highest level found was 11.3% in the lean meat of the chest/abdominal part. In the total meat about 2.8 times as much fat was retained in the second period of fattening than in the first period.