Division of Daily Cattle Nutrition, National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal-132001, India.
Online published on 21 January, 2012.
Fifteen Karan Fries (Tharparkar x Holstein Friesian) male calves with an average initial body weight of 101.33 kg were randomly divided into three equal groups. The animals were fed diet comprising of concentrate mixture and green maize as sole roughage. The concentrate for group 1 was without mineral supplement, whereas the concentrate in group 2 was supplemented with Ca, P, Mg and NaCl and in group 3 the concentrate was supplemented with Fe, Zn, Cu, Mn, Co, I, F and also major elements as in group 2. The experiment lasted for 14 weeks. Growth rates, 2.64, 2.21 and 2.59 kg per week in three groups, exhibited no effect of different treatments. This was also revealed by N balances which remained unaffected. Trace element supplementation caused better utilisation of Ca whereas P utilisation remained unaffected. The digestibilities of proximate principles except CF and NFE were not influenced due to mineral supplements. In group 3, (here was 10% increase in CF digestibility resulting in consequent decrease in NFE digestibility.
