Original Article | 2006, Vol.28, No.5, pp. 977-990
Growth performances and carcass characteristics of veal calves fed acidified whole milk and milk replacer
Kritsana Dumrongkadee, Chaiwan Wattanachant and Sompong Tedprasit
pp. 977 - 990
Abstract
The objective of this study was to determine the growth performances and carcass characteristics of male veal calves fed at different levels of acidified whole milk and milk replacer. Twenty-four male HolsteinFriesian 75% crossbred calves with an initial average live weight of 35.44±1.73 kg were allotted into 4 groups under a completely randomized design (CRD) for 90 days. Group 1 received 100% whole acidified milk (AM), group 2 received 75% AM and 25% milk replacer (MR), group 3 received 50% AM and 50% MR and group 4 received 100% MR. All groups received 10% body weight of liquid diet, 2% live weight of starter feed and ad libitum of rice straw. After 90 days, the calves in group 1 showed the best final live weight (98.33kg) followed by groups 2 (75.08 kg), 3 (70.00 kg) and 4 (57.36 kg) (P<0.01). The average daily gains of the calves in groups 1, 2, 3 and 4 were 648.51, 467.59, 387.22 and 256.11 g / d, respectively (P<0.01). The FCR of calves in groups 1 to 4 were 2.49, 2.86, 3.46 and 4.19, respectively (P<0.01). There were no health problems in any of the groups during the experimental study. Calves in group 1 exhibited firm dry faeces with a brown colour, group 2 showed creamy faeces, light brown, and both 3 and 4 showed wet faeces with a brown colour. The calves in group 1 had a similar chilled carcass percentage (53.65%) to calves in groups 2 (52.99%) and 3 (50.28%), but significantly (P<0.05) higher than calves in group 4 (47.19%). The calves in group 1 had the highest loin eye area (25.66 cm2) followed by the calves in groups 2 (22.67 cm2), 3 (16.33 cm2) and 4 (11.33 cm2) (P<0.05). Meat colour was redder but brighter for group 1 and 2 calves compared with groups 3 and 4. There were no significant differences (P>0.05) in the percentage of fore-quarter and hind-quarter between the treatments. Considering production costs, calves in group 1 showed the lowest cost per live weight gain (53.31 baht/kg gain), followed by group 2 (64.39 baht/kg gain), 3 (77.74 baht/kg gain) and 4 (116.82 baht/kg gain), respectively.
