Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
JOURNAL OF TEKIRDAG AGRICULTURE FACULTY-TEKIRDAG ZIRAAT FAKULTESI DERGISI, cilt.16, sa.3, ss.382-388, 2019 (ESCI)
The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of whole corn grain supplementation to starter diet of calves on feed consumption and growth performance (from birth to 63 days old). Calves were weighed before being taken into individual compartments. Calves were randomly divided into two groups according to their initial live weight and sex. Calves were fed with colostrum for the first three days. They were fed with milk substitute food from day 3 onwards. The first group of animals were fed with calf starter feed (control group) in addition to milk replacer feed (10 females and 10 males). The second group of animals were fed with calf starter and corn (10 females and 9 males) in addition to milk replacer. Solid feeds and water were provided to calves ad-libitum throughout the trial. During the trial, the birth length and the birth weights and daily live weight gains of calves did not influenced by the gender, treatment and the interaction of treatment x sex (P>0.05). Calves fed with corn consumed more dry matter than the control calves (P<0.01). Overall, the feed efficiency was found to be 14% higher when calves fed with corn (1.36) than those consuming the control diet (1.17, P<0.01). As a result of this study, it was observed that whole corn grain supplementation to starter diet did not significantly affect live weight and daily live weight in calves but it had a positive effect on feed consumption and feed efficiency.