Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
- ALIREZA AGHASHAHI
- alireza ashkevari 1
- hasan fazaeli 2
- hasan KHamisabadi 2
- pirouz shakeri 2
- mehdi eftekhari 3
1 Iran
2 Karaj Iran
3 Assistant Professor, Department of Animal Nutrition and Physiology, Animal Science Research Institute of Iran, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Qazvin, Iran.
Abstract
The aim of this experiment was to investigate the effect of replacing triticale silage with triticale-pea-barley silage (mixed silage) in the feeding of fattening male calves on animal performance in terms of feed intake, digestibility, daily weight gain, blood parameters, and economic evaluation. In this experiment, 20 Holstein and Holstein-Mont Billiard crossbred male calves with an average weight of 286 ± 43.5 kg were randomly divided into two homogeneous groups and each group was fed one of the experimental diets.The use of mixed silage in the diet of fattening calves increased the intake of dry matter (P<0.0001), crude protein (P=0.0219), and neutral detergent fiber (P=0.0252).Nutrient digestibility was higher in the mixed silage group compared to triticale (P<0.0001).The daily weight gain of experimental calves was higher (P=0.0166) in the mixed silage group, but due to lower feed intake in the triticale treatment, the feed conversion ratio was better in the triticale treatment (P=0.0485).The use of mixed silage in the diet increased cholesterol and urea in the blood of calves (P<0.0001). the income from selling live animals was higher (P<0.0001) calves treated with mixed silage, but the higher price per kilogram of feed and higher dry matter intake in the mixed silage treatment resulted in the same profit in the two treatments. Overall, the results of this study on fattening male calves showed that although the use of mixed silage improved feed intake and digestibility of dietary nutrients, it did not result in higher economic returns for fattening calves
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