Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T16:22:03.573Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The development of solid food intake in calves. 1. The effect of previous experience of solid food, and the physical form of the diet, on the development of food intake after weaning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

J. Hodgson
J. Hodgson
Affiliation:
The Grassland Research Institute, Hurley, Berks
Get access

Summary

1. British Friesian male calves were offered reconstituted milk substitute four times a day in steadily increasing quantities, so that the amount offered exceeded appetite after 14 days. They were given one of three dried herbage diets (pellets P1 and P2, and untreated material H2 made from the same crop as P2) to appetite, either from the start of the experiment (Treatment A) or from the start of weaning (Treatment W) 21 days after arrival. The experiment was terminated six weeks after the calves were weaned.

2. Grinding and pelleting (P2 v. H2) markedly reduced the in vivo digestibility of the diet, and the time of retention in the alimentary tract, increased the voluntary dry-matter intake by 50% and live-weight gain of the calves by 100%. The intakes of the two pelleted diets were similar.

3. The intake of diet H2 after weaning was greater in calves which had experience of the diet before weaning than in those which did not, but the intake of the pelleted diets was not affected by previous experience of solid food. The time required to eat unit weight of dry matter was four times as long for diet H2 as for the pelleted diets, and there were similar differences between diets in ruminating time. It is suggested that the development of solid food intake is influenced by the ease with which the diet can be eaten.

4. The initial increase in solid food intake after weaning was related to an increase in the times spent eating and ruminating, but later increases in food intake were achieved with no further increases in eating or ruminating time.

Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Production , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , February 1971 , pp. 15 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1971

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Blaxter, K. L., Graham, N. McC. and Wainman, F. W. 1956. Some observations on the digestibility of food by sheep, and on related problems. Br. J. Nutr. 10: 69–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
British Standards Institution. 1943. Test sieves. British Standard 410: 1943. (Incorporating amendment issued 1946 and 1955.)Google Scholar
Campling, R. C. and Freer, M. 1966. Factors affecting the voluntary intake of food by cows. 8. Experiments with ground pelleted roughages. Br. J. Nutr. 20: 229–244.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
CastleElizabeth, J. Elizabeth, J. 1956. The rate of passage of foodstuffs through the alimentary tract of the goat. 1. Studies on adult animals fed on hay and concentrates. Br. J. Nutr. 10: 15–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chambers, D. T. 1959. Grazing behaviour of calves reared at pasture. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 53: 417–424.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Godfrey, N. W. 1961. The functional development of the calf. II. Development of rumen function in the calf. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 57: 177–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haenlein, G. F. U. and Holdren, R. D. 1965. Response of sheep to wafered hay having different physical characteristics. J. Anim. Sci. 24: 810–818.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hibbs, J. W. and Conrad, H. R. 1958. High roughage system for raising calves based on the early development of rumen function. VIII. Effect of rumen inoculations and chlortetracycline on performance of calves fed high roughage pellets. J. Dairy Sci. 41: 1230–1247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodgson, J. 1965. The effect of weaning treatment on the development of solid food intake in calves. Anim. Prod. 7: 7–17.Google Scholar
Hodgson, J. 1970. The development of solid food intake in calves. 2. Studies on the volume of rumen fluid, determined by an indirect method. Anim. Prod. 13: 25–36.Google Scholar
Kromann, R. P. and Meyer, J. H. 1966. Energy metabolism in sheep as influenced by interactions among the rations energy content, physical form and buffers. J. Anim. Sci. 25: 1096–1101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, J. H., Gaskill, R. L., Stoewsand, G. S. and Weir, W. C. 1959. Influence of pelleting on the utilisation of alfalfa. J. Anim. Sci. 18: 336–346.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, L. A. 1964. Nutritive value of forage as affected by physical form. 1. General principles involved with ruminants and effects of feeding pelleted or wafered forage to dairy cattle. J. Anim. Sci. 23: 230–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Owen, J. B., Davies, D. A. R., Miller, E. L. and Ridgman, W. J. 1967. The intensive rearing of lambs. 2. Voluntary food intake and performance on diets of varying oat husk and beef tallow content. Anim. Prod. 9: 509–520.Google Scholar
Preston, T. R. 1957. Early weaning of calves. N.A.A.S. Quart. Rev., 35: 18–27.Google Scholar
Roy, J. H. B., Shillam, K. G. W. and Palmer, , June. 1955. The outdoor rearing of calves on grass with special reference to growth rate and grazing behaviour. J. Dairy Res. 22: 251–269.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swanson, E. W. and Harris, D. 1958. Development of rumination in the young calf. J. Dairy Sci. 41: 1768–1776.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallace, J. D., Raleigh, R. J. and Sawyer, W. A. 1961. Utilisation of chopped, wafered and pelleted native meadow hay by weaned Hereford calves. J. Anim. Sci. 20: 778–781.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weston, R. H. and Hogan, J. R. 1967. The digestion of chopped and ground roughages by sheep. 1. The movement of digesta through the stomach. Aust. J. agric. Res. 18: 789–802.CrossRefGoogle Scholar