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The development of solid food intake in calves 3. The relation between solid food intake and the development of the alimentary tract

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

J. Hodgson
Affiliation:
School of Agricultural Sciences, The University, Leeds 2
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Summary

1. Jersey calves were fed on milk substitute at the rate of 10% of live weight per day for 5 weeks and were offered either chopped dried grass or ground, pelleted dried grass to appetite. Calves were slaughtered at birth and after 5, 6, 7, 9 and 12 weeks on experiment, and the weights of the component parts of the alimentary tract and their contents were measured.

2. There were close correlations between the weights of the sections of the alimentary tract or their contents and the solid food intake at slaughter, total solid food intake, or empty body weight of the calves. There were no consistent changes with age in the DM concentration or the density of the digesta in any section of the alimentary tract except the abomasum, or in the digestibility or mean retention time of the diets.

3. Grinding and pelleting the diet increased the DM concentration but did not affect the density of the digesta. The increase in the weight of rumen contents per unit increase in dry-matter intake was much greater for chopped than for pelleted diets. The reverse was true for the contents of the abomasum and small intestine. There were relatively small variations between diets in the predicted weight of rumen contents, total digesta, or the volume of organs in the abdomen, at the within-diet mean levels of dry-matter intake.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1971

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References

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