Growth performance, health and behavioural characteristics of Brown Swiss calves fed a limited amount of acidified whole milk

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare performances of 27 Brown Swiss calves (13 male, 14 female) fed acidified whole milk (AM) or sweet whole milk (SM) at 8% of birth weight during 35 days. Daily body weight gains of calves that consumed AM were similar to those for calves fed SM. Overall feed efficiency ratio of AM-fed calves was also similar to those of SM-fed calves. Calf faecal consistency score and percent days with scours (P<0.01) of calves that consumed AM were significantly lower than those offered SM. Some of the behavioural traits such as frequency of daily meals of milk and total time spent consuming milk of calves consuming AM were significantly (P<0.05) higher than those of calves fed SM. On the other hand, number of days that assistance was needed to drink milk from open pail for AM-fed calves was higher (P<0.01) than that of calves that consumed SM. The results obtained in this study suggested that feeding AM decreased incidence of scours in young Brown Swiss calves without decreasing growth and feed efficiency.