Livestock Studies 1982, Vol 22, Num, 1-4     (Pages: 036-046)

The effect of nursing period on growth in Jersey calves

Nedim YILDIZ ,Orhan ALPAN

- This study was carried out to check the effects of early weaning on growth performance of Jersey calves on Karaköy State Farm. The material of the study consisted of 70 calves (40 female and 30 male) born in 1980-1981 calving season. The calves were assigned into experimental and control groups using stratified sampling technique and taking in to account the sex and birth order of the calves. The calves in experimental group were weaned at 10 months of age while the control group at 16 months. The experiment lasted for 24 weeeks.The daily allowance of milk to each calf was 1/10 of the body weight until the calf reached 50 kg and then the amount of milk was kept constant at 5 kg/day weaning. In addition to milk a calf starter and good quality alfaalfa hay was provided free choice to the calves. Live weights were taken every two weeks, wither height and chest grith measurements were recorded every four weeks.

The average birth weights of male and female calves were 21.8 and 20.1 kg respectively. The mean birth weight of experimental group was 0.4 kg. less than the control group. The control group maintained its superiority over the experimental group for body weight and also for wither height and chest girth measurements at all the age periods. However none of the differences were significant. Similarly, the males had higher but not significant measurements than females throughout the experiment. The average daily weight gains of the experimental and control calves from birth to 24 months of age were 551 and 574 g respectively.

It was concluded that reducing the weaning age from 16 to 10 weeks would not result detrimental effects on growts of Jersey calves. Because of economical reasons early weaning may be advised. Keywords :