Vol. 10, Special Issue 7 (2021)

Author(s):
Kamalahasan K and Sabin George

Abstract:
This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of feeding milk replacer on growth parameter of crossbred calves. Eighteen healthy crossbred calves both male and female around one week of age were selected and randomly divided into three groups of six each (T1, T2, and T3), as uniformly as possible with regard to age, sex, and body weight. The calves of T1 received whole milk as per routine farm practice, T2 group was offered whole milk plus commercial milk replacer as per manufacturers recommendation and T3 group was offered a formulated milk replacer @ 12.5 per cent of body weight. All the calves received ad libitum green fodder. The means body length at initial in T₁, T₂ and T₃ were 55.66±1.42, 55.16±0.7 and 54.5±0.61 cm, respectively and at the end of the experiment corresponding body length were 70.66±1.56, 68.16±1.93 and 67.83±1.01 respectively. There was no significant difference in body length at fortnightly intervals in crossbred calves. The initial mean height in T1, T2 and T3 were 67.66±1.66, 68.33±1.87 and 68.83±1.37 cm, respectively and the corresponding height at the end of the experiment were 84.43±2.05, 79.83±1.68 and 80.5±0.92 respectively. The height at withers of crossbred calves had no significant difference during the period of the experiment. The mean initial heart girth in T1, T2 and T3 were 68±1.18, 69.5±1.25 and 67.16±1.07 cm, respectively and at the end of the experiment corresponding heart girth were 88±2.78, 83±1.36 and 83.3±1.85 cm respectively. The fortnight heart girth was statistically non-significant between the treatments. This result shows that feeding of milk replacer to cross bred calves have no impact on their growth parameters.