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Increasing Consumption of Dry Feed by Young Calves1
I n c r e a s i n g C o n s u m p t i o n o f D r y F e e d b y Y o u n g Calves 1 J. L. MORRILL, A. D. DAYTON, and K. C. BEHNKE Departments of Animal Sciencesand Industry, Statistics, and Grain Science and Industry Kansas State University Manhattan 66506
be weaned when they are eating .45 to .68 kg of calf starter daily. Therefore, ways to increase dry feed consumption by the young calf are needed. Putting a handful of grain in the b o t t o m of the pail after the calf has finished drinking its milk has been suggested as a way to encourage calf starter consumption (1, 6). However, we were not aware of controlled studies to determine the efficacy of this method. Also, extrusion cooking has become an important part of the feed industry in production of pet foods, fish foods, and foods for laboratory animals (8), but data are lacking regarding consumption by calves of feeds fed in extruded form. In this study, these two approaches to stimulation of feed intake by young calves were investigated.
ABSTRACT
In one of two experiments to improve consumption of dry feed by the young calf, calves were fed milk from an open pail twice daily and always had access to calf starter. One-half of the calves were stimulated to consume calf starter by a small amount of calf starter placed in the milk pail as the calves were finishing their milk. The stimulated calves consumed more calf starter, exclusive of that put in the milk pail, and gained weight more rapidly than did the controls, indicating that is an effective way to increase consumption of calf starter. In the second experiment, calves had continuous access to both pelleted calf starter (4.8 mm diameter, weight 590 g/liter) and the same mixture extruded (extruded through 6.4 mm die, expanded to average 9.6 m m diameter, 9.6 mm length, weight 295 g/liter). Calves ate more pelleted than extruded feed during the first 3 wk of life; thus, consumption was n o t increased by extruding the feed.
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Experiment 1
INTRODUCTION
Young calves do n o t consume dry feed readily and depend on milk or a liquid replacement for nutrients. Dairymen frequently report that inadequate consumption of calf starter by dairy calves is a problem associated with early weaning (7). Based on their own experiments and a review of others, Kertz et ai. (4) stressed the importance of palatability and intake o f calf starters in early weaning programs. Warner (11) recommended that calves should
Received April 3, 1980. 1Contribution No. 80--319--j, Departments o f Animal Sciences and Industry, Statistics, and Grain Science and Industry, Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station, Manhattan 66506. 1981 J Dairy Sci 64:2216-2219
This experiment measured the effect of a small amount of dry feed p u t into the milk feeding pails of Holstein heifer calves just as they finished drinking milk. Calves remained with their dams for 1 day after birth, then were moved to individual elevated stalls in a building in which temperature was maintained between 13 and 30°C with ventilation and supplemental heat when necessary. Calves were fed milk at 8% of body weight but never exceeding 4.1 kg daily to 4 wk of age and could consume ad libitum calf starter (Table 1). Starter was fed in small amounts and removed as necessary to ensure freshness; weights of each were recorded. Milk was fed in open plastic pails; allowances were based on body weights, which were measured weekly between 1000 and 1400 h. Water was always available. Calves were weaned at 4 wk of age and from 4 to 5 wk of age could consume the same calf starter and water ad libitum. When 1 day old, the 24 calves were assigned alternately to control or stimulated group; thus,
2216
INCREASING CALF STARTER CONSUMPTION TABLE 1. Composition of starters used.
c o n t a m i n a t i o n by milk. Data were subjected to a repeated measures analysis o f variance blocked on animals (9).
Experiment Ingredient
1
2217
2 Experiment 2
(%) Corn, ground Sorghum grain, rolled Alfalfa hay, ground Whey, dried Soybean meal Wheat bran Oats, crimped
50 6.9 .... 20.0 17.3 ....
Molasses
51o
Tallow Minerals and vitamins
10.0 20.8 20.0 10.0 10.2 10.0 10.0
50 2.0 2.0 b
.8 a
acaco3, salt, trace mineralized salt, vitamins A and D. b • Dlcalcium phosphate, salt, vitamins A and D.
at any given time essentially equal numbers of calves of the same age were in the two t r e a t m e n t groups, and any environmental factor w o u l d affect both groups equally. T r e a t m e n t differed only in that calves in the stimulated group were given a small handful o f starter (Table 1 ) i n the milk pail at a b o u t the time the calves finished drinking milk. No e f f o r t was made to measure the a m o u n t of starter added to the milk pail or that removed because weight was added by
This e x p e r i m e n t measured c o n s u m p t i o n by 59 y o u n g Holstein calves (45 female, 14 male) of calf starter in e x t r u d e d form c o m p a r e d with c o n s u m p t i o n of the same feed in pelleted form. Calves remained with their dams for 1 day after birth, then were m o v e d to housing as in Exp e r i m e n t 1. They were fed milk as in Experim e n t 1 e x c e p t that milk was fed once daily. Water was n o t available during the 3 wk of the experiment. T w o feeds, fed in small amounts and replaced as necessary to ensure freshness, were always available. Positions of feeders were reversed daily. O f the same composition (Table 1), feeds differed only in that one was p r o d u c e d as a 4.8 m m pellet (by a California Pellet Mill Co. " M a s t e r " m o d e l pellet mill) and the o t h e r was extruded. The e x t r u d e d feed was p r o d u c e d in a pilot scale (11.4 cm) Anderson E x p a n d e r as follows. Sufficient water was added to the m i x e d feed near the inlet so that the m i x t u r e contained 25% water. The c o m b i n a t i o n of mechanical pressure ( a p p r o x i m a t e l y 28.1 kg/ cm 2) and injected steam raised the t e m p e r a t u r e at the die to 157°C; retention time was approximately 40 s. The m i x t u r e was e x t r u d e d through
TABLE 2. Analysis of variance for weight gains and feed consumption, and mean feed intake and weight gains, Experiment 1. Feed intake
Gain
Source of variation
df
MS
P
MS
P
Treatment Error animal (treatment) Week Treatment X week Residual
1 22 4 4 88
14.80 3.30 94.28 3.23 1.00
.05
22.28 3.51 32.12 .44 3.04
.02
.0001 .02
Feed intake (kg) ~
.0001 .96
Weight gain (kg)
Week
Control
Stimulated
Control
Stimulated
Avg.
1 2 3 4 5 Avg.
.7 1.4 2.3 2.9 4.9
.7 1.6 2.9 3.7 6.8
1.5 1.2 2.6 3.6 .7 1.9
2.7 1.8 3.6 4.2 1.6 2.8
2.1 1.5 3.1 3.9 1.1
Journal of Dairy Science Vol. 64, No. 11, 1981
2218
MORRILL ET AL.
TABLE 3. Analysis of variance for feed consumption, and feed intake by weeks, Experiment 2. Source
df
Calf (C) Feed (F) Error (C X F) Week F XW Residual
Week
58 1 58 2 2 226
Pelleted
MS
P
1.79 26.15 1.28 73.89 4.58 .70
.10 .0001 .0001 .0018
Feed intake ( k g ) ~ Extruded
1
.6
.2
2 3
.9 2.4 a
.6 1.4
aDuring wk 3, consumption of two feeds differed significantly.
a 6.4 m m die and expanded to (average) 9.6 mm in diameter and 9.6 mm long. The apparent bulk density of the extruded product was 295 g/liter, compared with 590 g/liter for the pelleted feed. Weekly feed consumption and weight gains measured between 1000 and 1400 h were recorded. Data were subjected to a repeated measures analysis of variance (9). RESULTS A N D DISCUSSION Experiment 1
All of the calves finished the experiment with no problems from disease. General appearance and vigor of calves in both groups was good throughout the experiment. Analyses of variance and probabilities for feed intake and weight gain are in Table 2. Stimulated calves consumed more (P=.05) feed and gained more (P=.02) weight than control calves. Mean feed intake and weight gains are in Table 2. There was a significant interaction of treatment x week affecting feed intake because stimulation failed to increase feed intake during the 1st wk but did increase intake at an increasing rate in later weeks. Feed consumptions in Table 2 do not include the small amount of starter put in the milk pail; thus, the actual difference in starter conJournal of Dairy Science Vol. 64, No. 11, 1981
sumption between the two groups was greater than shown in Table 2. The importance of the greater feed consumption of the stimulated calves is especially noticeable during the week after weaning, when gain of stimulated calves was more than twice that of control calves. The response to this procedure could vary according to the type of starter, especially that put into the milk pail. The mixture we used contained considerable fine material, which might be either a help or a hindrance. This approach seems to be a practical way to stimulate starter consumption. More research is needed to determine the most efficacious starter mixture to use. Experiment 2
The analysis of variance is in Table 3. Residual degrees of freedom were reduced by 6 because of missing observations. There was a significant interaction of feed x week; therefore, consumptions of feeds are shown by weeks in Table 3, because overall means obscure different results which occur at different weeks when there is this interaction (9). The interaction existed because consumption of pelleted feed during wk 1 and 2 though greater was n o t significantly greater. The small amount of dry feed consumed by newborn calves and the large variability makes it difficult to show statistically significant differences. The difference became significant (P<.05) during wk 3. Thus, extruding the feed did not increase consumption. Possible reasons(s) for lower consumption of the extruded feed include: 1) altered taste by extrusion process, 2) effect in rumen of less bulk density in feed, or 3) altered physical texture, creating a detrimental effect when animal was chewing the feed. This experiment was designed to measure only feed consumption, and any other benefit that extrusion might have, such as an effect on digestibility, could not be determined. Furthermore, it is possible for one feed to be consumed in greater amounts than another when both are offered at the same time y e t be consumed in equal amounts when fed separately (5). However, since less extruded feed was consumed than pelleted feed, it seems unlikely that consumption of the extruded feed would be greater if fed alone. We compared extruded feed to pelleted feed,
INCREASING CALF STARTER CONSUMPTION because p e l l e t i n g is t h e m o s t c o m m o n l y u s e d m e t h o d o f a g g l o m e t r a t i n g feed in t h e U n i t e d States (10). O t h e r s (2, 5) have c o m p a r e d p e l l e t e d s t a r t e r s t o starters in meal f o r m w i t h v a r y i n g results, d e p e n d i n g o n t h e t y p e of m i x t u r e , p a r t i c l e size o f feed ingredients, a n d w h e t h e r t h e calves h a d a c h o i c e b e t w e e n t w o f o r m s or were l i m i t e d to o n l y one. Since c o n s u m p t i o n o f e x t r u d e d feed was n o t g r e a t e r t h a n t h a t o f p e l l e t e d feed a n d because e x t r u d e d feed costs m o r e to p r o d u c e a n d h a n d l e t h a n p e l l e t e d feed (3), t h e r e is n o r e a s o n a p p a r e n t at this t i m e f o r e x t r u d i n g calf starters. REFERENCES
1 Anonymous. 1961. Raising dairy calves and heifers. US Dep. Agric. Farmers' Bull. No. 2176. 2 Gardner, R. W. 1967. Acceptability and nutritional response comparisons between calf starters. J. Dairy Sci. 50:729.
2219
3 Harper, J. M. 1978. Critical reviews in food science and nutrition. Vol. 11 (2):155. 4 Kertz, A. F., L. R. Prewitt, and J. P. Everett, Jr. 1979. An early weaning calf program: Summarization and review. J. Dairy Sci. 62:1835. 5 Lassiter, C. A., T. W. Denton, L. D. Brown, and J. W. Rust. 1955. The nutritional merits of pelleting calf starters. J. Dairy Sci. 38:1242. 6 Morrison, F. B. 1951. Feeds and feeding. 21st ed. Morrison Publ. Co., Ithaca NY. 7 Schuh, J. D., and T. N. Wegner. 1979. Evaluation of a feed preference agent for dairy calves. J. Dairy Sci. 62:1951. 8 Smith, O. B. 1976. Extrusion and cooking systems. Page 110 in Feed manufacturing technology. Am. Feed Manuf. Assoc., Arlington, VA. 9 Steel, R.G.D., and J. H. Torrie. 2nd ed. 1980. Principles and procedures of statistics. McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, NY. 10 Vosloh, C. J., Jr. 1978. Structure of the feed manufacturing industry, 1975. US Dep. Agric. Stat. Bull. No. 596. 11 Warner, R. G. 1970. Raising dairy replacements from birth to weaning. Hoard's Dairyman 115:976.
Journal of Dairy Science Vol. 64, No. 11, 1981
be weaned when they are eating .45 to .68 kg of calf starter daily. Therefore, ways to increase dry feed consumption by the young calf are needed. Putting a handful of grain in the b o t t o m of the pail after the calf has finished drinking its milk has been suggested as a way to encourage calf starter consumption (1, 6). However, we were not aware of controlled studies to determine the efficacy of this method. Also, extrusion cooking has become an important part of the feed industry in production of pet foods, fish foods, and foods for laboratory animals (8), but data are lacking regarding consumption by calves of feeds fed in extruded form. In this study, these two approaches to stimulation of feed intake by young calves were investigated.
ABSTRACT
In one of two experiments to improve consumption of dry feed by the young calf, calves were fed milk from an open pail twice daily and always had access to calf starter. One-half of the calves were stimulated to consume calf starter by a small amount of calf starter placed in the milk pail as the calves were finishing their milk. The stimulated calves consumed more calf starter, exclusive of that put in the milk pail, and gained weight more rapidly than did the controls, indicating that is an effective way to increase consumption of calf starter. In the second experiment, calves had continuous access to both pelleted calf starter (4.8 mm diameter, weight 590 g/liter) and the same mixture extruded (extruded through 6.4 mm die, expanded to average 9.6 m m diameter, 9.6 mm length, weight 295 g/liter). Calves ate more pelleted than extruded feed during the first 3 wk of life; thus, consumption was n o t increased by extruding the feed.
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Experiment 1
INTRODUCTION
Young calves do n o t consume dry feed readily and depend on milk or a liquid replacement for nutrients. Dairymen frequently report that inadequate consumption of calf starter by dairy calves is a problem associated with early weaning (7). Based on their own experiments and a review of others, Kertz et ai. (4) stressed the importance of palatability and intake o f calf starters in early weaning programs. Warner (11) recommended that calves should
Received April 3, 1980. 1Contribution No. 80--319--j, Departments o f Animal Sciences and Industry, Statistics, and Grain Science and Industry, Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station, Manhattan 66506. 1981 J Dairy Sci 64:2216-2219
This experiment measured the effect of a small amount of dry feed p u t into the milk feeding pails of Holstein heifer calves just as they finished drinking milk. Calves remained with their dams for 1 day after birth, then were moved to individual elevated stalls in a building in which temperature was maintained between 13 and 30°C with ventilation and supplemental heat when necessary. Calves were fed milk at 8% of body weight but never exceeding 4.1 kg daily to 4 wk of age and could consume ad libitum calf starter (Table 1). Starter was fed in small amounts and removed as necessary to ensure freshness; weights of each were recorded. Milk was fed in open plastic pails; allowances were based on body weights, which were measured weekly between 1000 and 1400 h. Water was always available. Calves were weaned at 4 wk of age and from 4 to 5 wk of age could consume the same calf starter and water ad libitum. When 1 day old, the 24 calves were assigned alternately to control or stimulated group; thus,
2216
INCREASING CALF STARTER CONSUMPTION TABLE 1. Composition of starters used.
c o n t a m i n a t i o n by milk. Data were subjected to a repeated measures analysis o f variance blocked on animals (9).
Experiment Ingredient
1
2217
2 Experiment 2
(%) Corn, ground Sorghum grain, rolled Alfalfa hay, ground Whey, dried Soybean meal Wheat bran Oats, crimped
50 6.9 .... 20.0 17.3 ....
Molasses
51o
Tallow Minerals and vitamins
10.0 20.8 20.0 10.0 10.2 10.0 10.0
50 2.0 2.0 b
.8 a
acaco3, salt, trace mineralized salt, vitamins A and D. b • Dlcalcium phosphate, salt, vitamins A and D.
at any given time essentially equal numbers of calves of the same age were in the two t r e a t m e n t groups, and any environmental factor w o u l d affect both groups equally. T r e a t m e n t differed only in that calves in the stimulated group were given a small handful o f starter (Table 1 ) i n the milk pail at a b o u t the time the calves finished drinking milk. No e f f o r t was made to measure the a m o u n t of starter added to the milk pail or that removed because weight was added by
This e x p e r i m e n t measured c o n s u m p t i o n by 59 y o u n g Holstein calves (45 female, 14 male) of calf starter in e x t r u d e d form c o m p a r e d with c o n s u m p t i o n of the same feed in pelleted form. Calves remained with their dams for 1 day after birth, then were m o v e d to housing as in Exp e r i m e n t 1. They were fed milk as in Experim e n t 1 e x c e p t that milk was fed once daily. Water was n o t available during the 3 wk of the experiment. T w o feeds, fed in small amounts and replaced as necessary to ensure freshness, were always available. Positions of feeders were reversed daily. O f the same composition (Table 1), feeds differed only in that one was p r o d u c e d as a 4.8 m m pellet (by a California Pellet Mill Co. " M a s t e r " m o d e l pellet mill) and the o t h e r was extruded. The e x t r u d e d feed was p r o d u c e d in a pilot scale (11.4 cm) Anderson E x p a n d e r as follows. Sufficient water was added to the m i x e d feed near the inlet so that the m i x t u r e contained 25% water. The c o m b i n a t i o n of mechanical pressure ( a p p r o x i m a t e l y 28.1 kg/ cm 2) and injected steam raised the t e m p e r a t u r e at the die to 157°C; retention time was approximately 40 s. The m i x t u r e was e x t r u d e d through
TABLE 2. Analysis of variance for weight gains and feed consumption, and mean feed intake and weight gains, Experiment 1. Feed intake
Gain
Source of variation
df
MS
P
MS
P
Treatment Error animal (treatment) Week Treatment X week Residual
1 22 4 4 88
14.80 3.30 94.28 3.23 1.00
.05
22.28 3.51 32.12 .44 3.04
.02
.0001 .02
Feed intake (kg) ~
.0001 .96
Weight gain (kg)
Week
Control
Stimulated
Control
Stimulated
Avg.
1 2 3 4 5 Avg.
.7 1.4 2.3 2.9 4.9
.7 1.6 2.9 3.7 6.8
1.5 1.2 2.6 3.6 .7 1.9
2.7 1.8 3.6 4.2 1.6 2.8
2.1 1.5 3.1 3.9 1.1
Journal of Dairy Science Vol. 64, No. 11, 1981
2218
MORRILL ET AL.
TABLE 3. Analysis of variance for feed consumption, and feed intake by weeks, Experiment 2. Source
df
Calf (C) Feed (F) Error (C X F) Week F XW Residual
Week
58 1 58 2 2 226
Pelleted
MS
P
1.79 26.15 1.28 73.89 4.58 .70
.10 .0001 .0001 .0018
Feed intake ( k g ) ~ Extruded
1
.6
.2
2 3
.9 2.4 a
.6 1.4
aDuring wk 3, consumption of two feeds differed significantly.
a 6.4 m m die and expanded to (average) 9.6 mm in diameter and 9.6 mm long. The apparent bulk density of the extruded product was 295 g/liter, compared with 590 g/liter for the pelleted feed. Weekly feed consumption and weight gains measured between 1000 and 1400 h were recorded. Data were subjected to a repeated measures analysis of variance (9). RESULTS A N D DISCUSSION Experiment 1
All of the calves finished the experiment with no problems from disease. General appearance and vigor of calves in both groups was good throughout the experiment. Analyses of variance and probabilities for feed intake and weight gain are in Table 2. Stimulated calves consumed more (P=.05) feed and gained more (P=.02) weight than control calves. Mean feed intake and weight gains are in Table 2. There was a significant interaction of treatment x week affecting feed intake because stimulation failed to increase feed intake during the 1st wk but did increase intake at an increasing rate in later weeks. Feed consumptions in Table 2 do not include the small amount of starter put in the milk pail; thus, the actual difference in starter conJournal of Dairy Science Vol. 64, No. 11, 1981
sumption between the two groups was greater than shown in Table 2. The importance of the greater feed consumption of the stimulated calves is especially noticeable during the week after weaning, when gain of stimulated calves was more than twice that of control calves. The response to this procedure could vary according to the type of starter, especially that put into the milk pail. The mixture we used contained considerable fine material, which might be either a help or a hindrance. This approach seems to be a practical way to stimulate starter consumption. More research is needed to determine the most efficacious starter mixture to use. Experiment 2
The analysis of variance is in Table 3. Residual degrees of freedom were reduced by 6 because of missing observations. There was a significant interaction of feed x week; therefore, consumptions of feeds are shown by weeks in Table 3, because overall means obscure different results which occur at different weeks when there is this interaction (9). The interaction existed because consumption of pelleted feed during wk 1 and 2 though greater was n o t significantly greater. The small amount of dry feed consumed by newborn calves and the large variability makes it difficult to show statistically significant differences. The difference became significant (P<.05) during wk 3. Thus, extruding the feed did not increase consumption. Possible reasons(s) for lower consumption of the extruded feed include: 1) altered taste by extrusion process, 2) effect in rumen of less bulk density in feed, or 3) altered physical texture, creating a detrimental effect when animal was chewing the feed. This experiment was designed to measure only feed consumption, and any other benefit that extrusion might have, such as an effect on digestibility, could not be determined. Furthermore, it is possible for one feed to be consumed in greater amounts than another when both are offered at the same time y e t be consumed in equal amounts when fed separately (5). However, since less extruded feed was consumed than pelleted feed, it seems unlikely that consumption of the extruded feed would be greater if fed alone. We compared extruded feed to pelleted feed,
INCREASING CALF STARTER CONSUMPTION because p e l l e t i n g is t h e m o s t c o m m o n l y u s e d m e t h o d o f a g g l o m e t r a t i n g feed in t h e U n i t e d States (10). O t h e r s (2, 5) have c o m p a r e d p e l l e t e d s t a r t e r s t o starters in meal f o r m w i t h v a r y i n g results, d e p e n d i n g o n t h e t y p e of m i x t u r e , p a r t i c l e size o f feed ingredients, a n d w h e t h e r t h e calves h a d a c h o i c e b e t w e e n t w o f o r m s or were l i m i t e d to o n l y one. Since c o n s u m p t i o n o f e x t r u d e d feed was n o t g r e a t e r t h a n t h a t o f p e l l e t e d feed a n d because e x t r u d e d feed costs m o r e to p r o d u c e a n d h a n d l e t h a n p e l l e t e d feed (3), t h e r e is n o r e a s o n a p p a r e n t at this t i m e f o r e x t r u d i n g calf starters. REFERENCES
1 Anonymous. 1961. Raising dairy calves and heifers. US Dep. Agric. Farmers' Bull. No. 2176. 2 Gardner, R. W. 1967. Acceptability and nutritional response comparisons between calf starters. J. Dairy Sci. 50:729.
2219
3 Harper, J. M. 1978. Critical reviews in food science and nutrition. Vol. 11 (2):155. 4 Kertz, A. F., L. R. Prewitt, and J. P. Everett, Jr. 1979. An early weaning calf program: Summarization and review. J. Dairy Sci. 62:1835. 5 Lassiter, C. A., T. W. Denton, L. D. Brown, and J. W. Rust. 1955. The nutritional merits of pelleting calf starters. J. Dairy Sci. 38:1242. 6 Morrison, F. B. 1951. Feeds and feeding. 21st ed. Morrison Publ. Co., Ithaca NY. 7 Schuh, J. D., and T. N. Wegner. 1979. Evaluation of a feed preference agent for dairy calves. J. Dairy Sci. 62:1951. 8 Smith, O. B. 1976. Extrusion and cooking systems. Page 110 in Feed manufacturing technology. Am. Feed Manuf. Assoc., Arlington, VA. 9 Steel, R.G.D., and J. H. Torrie. 2nd ed. 1980. Principles and procedures of statistics. McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, NY. 10 Vosloh, C. J., Jr. 1978. Structure of the feed manufacturing industry, 1975. US Dep. Agric. Stat. Bull. No. 596. 11 Warner, R. G. 1970. Raising dairy replacements from birth to weaning. Hoard's Dairyman 115:976.
Journal of Dairy Science Vol. 64, No. 11, 1981