Rearing dairy replacements on the Atherton Tableland, Queensland. II. Effect of number of calves per cow and grain supplementation

Abstract

Ninety-six calves born between October 1974 and January 1975 were either a. bucket fed once daily on a commercial milk replacer, or multiple suckled once daily at b. four or c. five calves cow-1. Nurse cows suckled either two or three calves in the morning and the remaining two calves in the afternoon. Calves were supplemented with nil or ad libitum hammermilled maize. Weaning was at eight weeks of age. Calves in treatments a., b. and c. averaged 0,39, 0.45 and 0.38 kg liveweight gain calf-1 day-1. Calves suckled at four per cow gained significantly more weight than other calves (P < 0.05). Suckling three rather than two calves in the mornings reduced liveweight gain of calves from 0.50 to 0.36 kg day-1 (P < 0.01). Growth rates of afternoon suckled calves were 0.42 and 0.41 kg day-1 for calves reared at four and five calves cow-1 respectively. Maize supplementation increased liveweight gain of calves from 0.36 to 0.45 kg calf-1 day-1 (P < 0.01 ). The interaction of supplement level and rearing system was not significant. The relevance of these results to the local dairy industry is discussed.