UDC 636.084.415
DOI 10.36461/NP.2023.65.1.002
COMPLEX FUNCTIONAL ADDITIVES AND THEIR EFFECT ON CALF GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT
М.S. Upinin, post-graduate student; А.Y. Lavrentiev, Doctor of Agricultural Sciences, Professor
Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education "Chuvash State Agrarian University", Cheboksary, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The production security of dairy farms is directly dependent on the breeding of their own replacement heifers. In recent years, the standard for the Holstein breed is that heifers should be inseminated no later than 14 months of age and calved at 22-24 months of age. Based on today's realities, many farms are aiming to breed their own young cattle, which in the future will increase profits from raw milk production. For this purpose, farms use various biological additives in the diets for feeding calves up to the age of six months. Due to the high demand of farms for effective feed additives which improve the growth and development of calves in the period of growth, we conducted research on the effect of using the complex functional additives Rumenfit 50 and Ru-menfit 100 in the starter feeds. For the experiment three groups of calves of Holstein breed of 60-65 days of age were formed, which were selected by the method of similar groups: control, first experimental and second ex-perimental. Calves of the control group were fed the basic ration accepted in the farm. Animals of the first experimental group were given the complex functional additive Rumenfit 100 in the composition of the starter mixed fodder at the rate of 10 g per head daily, while calves of the second experimental group received the complex functional additive Rumenfit 50 at the rate of 5 g per head daily, respectively. Based on the data on the monthly reweighting of all animals participating in the scientific and economic experiment, it can be concluded that the average daily live weight gain was higher by 3.5% in the first experimental group and by 1.6% in the second experimental group relatively to the control group after the first month of feeding the experimental groups of animals with the complex functional additives Rumenfit 50 and 100. The average daily live weight gain of the heifers in the first experimental group was 14 g higher than that of the second experimental group at three months of age.
Keywords: calf, live weight, dietary supplement, average daily gain, ration, compound feed.
