Meat meal quality in the diet of early-weaned

Abstract

In experiments designed to study the effect of the quality of meat meal on growth and efficiency of feed utilization, diets containing meat meal with three levels of added bone meal (0, 8, and 16 per cent), and two levels of added wool keratin (0 and 8 per cent) were fed to 36 male Friesian calves from 5 to 17 weeks of age. The addition of bone meal reduced weight gains, when they were adjusted for weaning weight, and reduced the digestibility of calcium. The addition of wool protein did not affect growth rate or efficiency of feed conversion, but depressed the digestibility of organic matter. The average weight of calves at 17 weeks was 144.3 kg with an average efficiency of feed conversion of 3.11 between 5 and 17 weeks of age.