PASTURE FOR YOUNG DAIRY STOCK: III. EFFECT OF PREPASTURE RATION, AGE, AND GRAIN SUPPLEMENTATION ON GROWTH OF CALVES ON PASTURE

Abstract

The growth of pastured calves, as affected by supplementary grain feeding, moderate and high prepasture planes of nutrition, and age on going to pasture (56, 112, or 168 days), was compared with growth of calves on a standard barn feeding regime. Seventy-two Holstein heifer calves were involved with treatment comparisons based on gains in body weight, withers height, heart girth, and barrel circumference.Over-all gains of pastured calves were not affected by either prepasture plane of nutrition or age to pasture and were similar to gains of barn-fed controls. Calves fed supplemental grain (crushed oats) showed no increase m growth rate. This was attributed to a lower intake of forage by the supplemented animals and the relatively high quality of the forage as indicated by chemical composition and digestibility.Seasonal growth patterns of pastured calves showed a depression during the initial period on pasture. However, this was overcome by greater gains than barn-fed controls during the later pasture periods.