Effect of feeding graded levels of apple pomace on growth performance, haemato-biochemical parameters and rumen metabolites in crossbred calves

To study effect of feeding graded levels of apple pomace on performance of crossbred calves, 90 days growth trial followed by 6 days metabolic trail was conducted on 16 female Jersey crossbred calves divided into four equal groups with control (T₀) fed concentrate diet without apple pomace and experimental groups viz, T₁, T₂ and T₃, where maize was replaced by 25%, 50% and 75% of apple pomace, respectively. There was no significant difference in dry matter intake, growth performance, feed conversion ratio and digestibility coefficients of CF, NFE, ADF and HC with inclusion of apple pomace in calf ration; however digestibility of DM, OM, CP, EE and NDF reduced significantly at higher inclusion level (75%). There was also no significant difference in nutritive value of the experimental diets with respect to %DCP and %TDN, ME, DE and NR. There was no significant difference in the mean haemato-biochemical values, however significant (P<0.05) effect of feeding apple pomace was observed on total serum proteins with lower values in animals of T₃group as compared to control. Similarly non-significant differences were observed in ruminal pH, TVFA, total nitrogen, NH₃-N, TCA-ppt. N and NPN values.