Performance of Dairy Calves Fed Diet Containing Silage Juices

Abstract

Silage juice was proven to be equal with an antibioticin term of inhibiting Salmonella sp. and E. coli in vitro. The objective of this study was to compare between the effect of adding silage juice and tetra chlor, an antibiotic, in diets on performance of dairy calves. Twelves of male calves age one month were randomly assigned to one of the three dietary treatments, i.e.: Control diet that composed of milk replacer or starter diet (R1); Control diet +50 ppm antibiotic (R2); and Control diet + 0.3% silage juice (R3). Milk replacer was given as many as 10% of body weight in the beginning, and gradually decreased as increasing intake of starter diet, and then it was stopped after dry matter intake of starter diet reach 3% of body weight. Results showed that feed intake and daily gain of calves fed diets containing silage juice and antibiotic were better (P<0.05) compared with those of calves received control diet, and no different was found on the parametersfor calves fed silage juice and antibiotics. Feed efficiency was also better for calves fed antibiotics (0.35±0.23) and juice silage (0.41±0.15) compared with that of calves fed control diet (0.34±0.14). Neutrophyl was better for calves fed juice silage and antibiotics compared with that of control diets. Diarrhea incidence was relatively higher for calves fed control diet compared with that of the other treatments as shown by the feces scores; the scores were 1.70, 1.66, and 1.69 for calves fed control, antibiotic and silage juice diets, respectively. It is concluded that silage juice is comparable with tetra chlor in term of improving performance of calves.