Nutrition of the early-weaned calf. XI. Intake of diets differing in energy concentration

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Abstract
SUMMARY 1. A growth and digestibility trial was carried out with 27 British Friesian calves given diets having either 3·1, 2·8 or 2·4 Meal metabolizable energy per kg dry matter and either the same concentration of protein or the same protein-to-energy ratio. 2. Daily dry-matter intake and rate of gain in live weight increased significantly as the energy concentration of the diet was reduced. There were no significant differences in digestible-energy intake between calves given the different diets, although the trend was the same as for dry-matter intake. 3. Both dry-matter digestibility and energy digestibility were lowest for the low-energy diet.