RESEARCH ARTICLE
Intake Based Milk Allocation Improves Health and Growth of Calves
I. Halachmia, b, *, A. Shabtayb, A. Asherb, R. Agmonb, A. Orlovb, M. Mazaribeb, A. Zuabib, A. Broshb
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2011Volume: 5
First Page: 37
Last Page: 45
Publisher ID: TOASJ-5-37
DOI: 10.2174/1874331501105010037
Article History:
Received Date: 12/7/2010Revision Received Date: 20/12/2010
Acceptance Date: 28/2/2011
Electronic publication date: 21/10/2011
Collection year: 2011
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
The problem:
The same feeding plan can be applied to all animals with individual differences rarely considered. On the contrary, individual intake-based feeding regime claims that if a calf has missed meals and therefore could not consume its daily milk allocation, it should be compensated.
Methods:
The objective of this study was (1) to compare ‘age-based milk allocation’ with calf individual ‘intake-based milk allocation’ (milk amount depending on the actual consumption). The study achieved its objective through the following phases (2) to design a real-time algorithm, (3) to embed the algorithm in the feeder’s control software, (4) unique mechanical design capable of the computer-controlled feeder.
One hundred and fifty male calves were fed. If a calf has not consumed its accumulated milk allocation from birth to date it receives an additional 1.5 liters (L) per day until it has consumed the entire planned amount.
Results:
Daily weight gain was 691 g/day in the age-based group vs. 794 g/day (SE = 36) in the intake-bared group. The average body weights (BW) at weaning were 76 kg vs. 82 kg. The indicator of health 57% vs. 66%.
