The roughage requirement of early weaned calves

Abstract

Eighty-four calves were weaned at five weeks of age on to barley-based pellets containing 0, 15 or 30 per cent oat pollards. An additional treatment was to provide access or no access to long straw. Growth rates from six to ten weeks were 0.75 and 0.50 kg day-1 for calves with and without access to long straw, respectively (P < 0.001 ). As the content of oat pollards in the pellets increased, pellet intake increased so that growth rates were maintained when calves had access to long straw, and increased when long straw was not available. However, the highest growth rate of calves without long straw was still 0.14 kg day-1 lower than the lowest average growth rates of calves with access to long straw. These results are discussed in relation to the buffering capacity of the rumen in young calves.