Zeeshan Iqbal - Sahiwal is the most promising indigenous breed of cattle being extensively used in various breeding programs. The major constraints in economical production of Sahiwal are slow growth rate, late maturity, light weight at onset of puberty, long dry period and calving interval which can be reduced through better feeding and management.
The use of milk replacer as a liquid feed for calves has increased due to increased price and demand of milk for human consumption. Properly synthesized milk replacer can be a high quality source of nutrients for young calves, and is thought to be supportive to calf health and performance. Keeping in view, the recent research was conducted to compare the effects of whole milk and milk replacer on performance of Sahiwal calves.
For this purpose, experiments were conducted at Livestock Experimental Station, Jahangirabad, Khanewal, Punjab, Pakistan.
The results indicated that early feeding management of calves on least cost milk replacer and starter rations may improve their health, better growth and early start of rumination process on economical basis.
The best performance in terms of increased dry matter intake, feed efficiency, weight gain, body measurements and good body condition score was observed in the calves and heifers fed on green fodder along with the starter ration at the rate of 1% of the body weight.
The cost to gain ratio was observed comparatively low in the calves/heifers fed on the treatments supplemented with 1pc concentrate and starter diets. Sahiwal cows raised on supplemented diets fed at the rate of 2pc of body weight produced significantly higher average milk (11.87 vs 5.25 liter) than the control.
Improvement in the milk production in Sahiwal cattle was also observed mainly due to supplementation of aconcentrate during the growth and pregnancy periods.
It is suggested that calves and heifers may be supplemented with concentrate at the rate of 1pc of body weight to attain early maturity and pregnant animals may be fed concentrate supplements at the rate of 2pc of body weight to achieve better condition score and more milk production without affecting the milk composition.
The research demonstrated that a well formulated milk replacer can support equivalent calf performance compared with whole milk.