Table 1 – Bodyweight and ADG in W0 and W17 group.
Birth weight (kg)
ADG between day 0-42 (kg/d) ADG between day 43-49 (kg/d) BW between day 50-70 (kg) ADG between day 50-70 (kg/d) BW at follow-up at 5 mo of age (kg)
W0 W17 37.5 0.66 0.27 81.9 1.09
37.9 0.61 0.37 80.8 1.03
199.9 186.9
Farmers often think that calves receive ade- quate amounts of water from milk or milk replacer.
nutrient digestibility in dairy heifer calves fed ad libitum amounts of liquid feed. For the study, thirty Holstein heifer calves, balanced for parity of the dam, birth weight, and birth week, were randomly assigned (15 per group) to treat- ment group W0 (access to water from day 0) or W17 (access to water from day 17). Calves were bottle-fed with pasteur- ised whole milk three times per day (2.0 kg/feeding until d 14, and 3.2 kg/feeding thereafter). Calves were partially weaned at 42 days of age and completely weaned at 49 days of age. Some parameters were measured daily, such as drinking water intake and starter and milk intake. Things like body weight and hip height were measured weekly. Blood and faeces samples were also analysed for this study.
Effect on body weight It was shown that when offered from birth, newborn calves consumed 0.75 ± 0.05 kg/d water aside from the water they received from ad libitum milk allowance during the first 16 days. Once offered, W17 calves drank more water (59%) than W0 calves during the preweaning period. Starter intake of W0 and W17 calves was similar, but W0 calves consumed 0.285 kg/d more milk and tended to achieve greater body weight and heart girth compared with W17 calves during the preweaning period (Table 1). The differences in body- weight became more pronounced toward the end of the preweaning period. Average daily gain was not significantly
different between W0 and W17 but W0 calves had numeri- cally greater ADG than W17 calves during the preweaning period. Offering water from birth versus offering it later did not affect the number of days with diarrhoea, intensity of diarrhoea, or blood hematocrit and haptoglobin concentra- tions of preweaned calves. Despite a similar starter intake, W0 calves had greater hip height, body length, apparent total-tract digestibility of acid detergent fibre and neutral detergent fibre, and feed efficiency than W17 calves postweaning (50 to 70 d of age).
Positive effect on rumen development Based on these findings, the researchers therefore conclude that provision of drinking water immediately after birth could improve growth and development of calves pre- and postweaning, potentially by stimulating rumen devel- opment, thus increasing nutrient availability. Unlike milk, which is shunted directly to the abomasum via the eso phageal groove, drinking water is capable of enter- ing the rumen and becoming an integral part of its development.
This article is a summary of the original paper: Drinking water intake of newborn dairy calves and its effects on feed intake, growth performance, health status, and nutrient digestibility, published in the January edition of Journal of Dairy Science.
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