Effect of ensiled mixture of apple pomace and wheat straw based complete feed on growth performance of calves

Abstract

Abstract The study was conducted with the aim to find out the effect of ensiled apple pomace based complete feed on growth response of calves. Ten male cross-bred calves were used for determination of dry matter intake (DMI), gain in weight (GIW) and feed efficiency ratio (FER) of ensiled apple pomace based complete feed. Ensiled mixture of apple pomace (AP) and wheat straw (WS) i.e. (EMAPWS) was mixed with concentrate feed and fed to Group 1 calves. The Group 2 calves were fed with ensiled AP in which fresh WS i.e. (EMAPFWS) and concentrate was mixed just before feeding. Growth parameters such as (GIW (Kg/week/calf and Kg/day/calf), DMI (% body weight/calf) and feed efficiency ratio were worked out up to 8 weeks. The overall average DMI in Group 1 and Group 2, respectively, was 2.791 and 2.507 per cent of body weight. The overall average GIW was 2.019 and 1.825 kg, respectively, in Group 1 and Group 2. The overall average daily gain in weight was 288 and 260 g/calf/day in Group 1 and Group 2, respectively. There was non-significant variation in FER between both the groups. The overall feed efficiency ratio was 0.1475 and 0.1876 in Group 1 and Group 2, respectively. The overall feed efficiency ratio of Group 2 was 27.19 percent higher than Group 1. It meant that higher DMI, GIW and FER could be achieved by ensiling WS and AP together and was more palatable than adding fresh WS in ensiled AP.