The Nutritional Merits of Pelleting Calf Starters

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Nutritional studies were conducted with 45 new-born dairy calves to determine nutritional merits of pelleting calf starters. Three types of starter were used: all meal, all pellet, and part meal and part pellet. No significant differences between the 3 groups of calves were observed in average daily gain, skeletal growth, incidence of scours, the consumption of hay or starter or the efficiency of feed utilization when the calves were limited to one type of starter. When calves could choose any 1 of the 3 starters, they consumed significantly more of the pelleted starter than either of the 2 other starters. Consumption of part meal and part pellet starter was significantly greater than that of the all meal starter. No nutritional advantages were found for the pelleting of calf starters.