The objective of this work was to study the effects of age at the beginning of forage supply (4 or 60 days) and weaning age (35 or 56 days) on the digestibility of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and gross energy (GE) and nitrogen balance, in the post weaning period, in Holstein and Holstein x Zebu crossbred bull calves. The animals were maintained in metabolism cages for feces and urine collection. A unique diet containing […]

The objective of this work was to evaluate the weight gain, feed efficiency and carcass characteristics of dairy steers. Sixteen Holstein dairy steers with initial average age and weight of 20 months and 202,0 kg were used. The animals were divided into four groups. One group of animals was slaughtered at the beginning of the trial (AI) and three groups were ad libitum fed (AL-1, AL-2 and AL-3) and they were slaughtered when the individual weights of 250.0, 300.0 and […]

This work was conducted to study the net requirements of energy for maintenance and weight gain, the net requirements of protein for weight-gain and the dietetic requirements of protein and energy, as well as, the changes in corporal composition of dairy steers as live weight increased, with the purpose of meat production. Sixteen Holstein dairy steers with initial average age and weight of 20 months and 202.0 kg were used. The animals were divided into five groups: one group of […]

This work was to evaluate the effect of different forage levels in the diet on the intake and apparent digestibility of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), total carbohydrate (CHO), gross energy (GE) and total digestible nutrients (TDN). Thirty five pure Holstein bull calves, 60 days old with initial average live weight (LW) of 78 kg, were allotted in a completely randomized experimental design with nine replications per diet, except […]

This study was to evaluate the effects of different levels of forage in the diet on the intake and apparent absorption of calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P), magnesium (Mg), potassium (K) and sodium (Na). Thirty five pure Holstein bull calves, 60 days old with initial average live weight (LW) of 78 kg, were allotted in a completely randomized experimental design with nine replicates per diet, except for the 10% forage diet, with eight replications. The animals were ad libitum fed with […]

This work was conducted aiming to evaluate the effect of different forage levels in the diet on the average daily dry matter intake (DMI), average weight gain (AWG), feed:gain ratio and carcass yield. Thirty-six pure Holstein bull calves, 60 days old with initial average live weight (LW) of 78 kg, were allotted in a completely randomized experimental design. The animals were ad libitum fed with diets contained 10, 25, 40, and 55% of forage, on the DM basis, using chopped […]

The objective of this work was to evaluate the effects of different forage levels in the diet on the body composition, net energy for maintenance and weight gain and net protein requirements for weight gain. Fifty-two pure Holstein bulls calves; 60 days old with initial average live weight (LW) of 78 kg were used. Eight reference animals were slaughtered at the beginning of the feeding trial. Another group of eight animals were fed diet with 90% of forage and 10% […]

The objective of this work was to evaluate the effects of different forage levels in the diet on the net and dietary calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P), magnesium (Mg), potassium (K) and sodium (Na) requirements. Forty-four pure Holstein bulls calves, 60 days old with initial average live weight (LW) of 78 kg were used. Eight reference animals were slaughtered at the beginning of the experiment, to estimate the initial empty body weight (EBW) and initial body concentrations of Ca, P, Mg, […]

This work was to evaluate the effects of different forage levels in the diet on the efficiency of metabolizable energy (ME) utilization for maintenance and weight gain, and the requirements of ME, total digestible nutrients (TDN) and metabolizable protein (MP). Forty-four pure Holstein bulls calves, 60 days old with initial average live weight (LW) of 78 kg were used. Eight reference animals were slaughtered at the beginning of the feeding trial. The remaining 36 animals were allotted in the treatments […]