Abstract #M310

# M310
Pre- and post weaning performance and health of dairy calves fed milk replacers formulated with 5 or 10% levels of spray-dried bovine plasma.
David M. Ziegler*1, Hugh Chester-Jones1, Ronelle M. Blome2, David R. Wood2, 1University of Minnesota, Waseca, MN, 2Animix LLC, Juneau,WI,USA.

One-hundred eleven (2 to 5 d old) individually fed Holstein heifer calves (40.0 ± 0.61 kg) from 3 commercial dairies were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 milk replacer treatments (MR) formulated with 5% (50.1 kg/t) or 10% (100.2 kg/t) spray-dried bovine plasma (BP) replacing 16 and 32% of milk protein. All MR were balanced for 2.4% Lys, 0.8% Met, and 1.6% Thr, with no additional synthetic amino acids added to evaluate pre- (d 1–42) and post-weaning (d 43–56) calf performance and health. The study was conducted between July and October 2017. Treatments included (1) all-milk-protein, non-medicated MR 24% CP:20% fat fed at 0.34 kg in 2.38 L of water 2× daily from d 1 to d 35 and 1× daily from d 36 to weaning at d 42, (CON); (2) MR 24% CP:20% fat, non-medicated fed as in CON formulated with 5% BP, (MRBP5); (3) MR 24% CP:20% fat, non-medicated fed as in CON formulated with 10% BP, (MRBP10); Calf starter (CS; 18% CP as fed) and water were offered free choice from d 1 to 56. There were no differences in pre- (d 1–42), post weaning (d 43–56), and overall (d 1–56) gains averaging 0.60, 1.08, 0.72 kg/d respectively (P > 0.05). Pre- (d 1–42) and post weaning (d 43–56) CS starter intake was similar across treatments averaging 14.5 and 30.0 kg total intake (P > 0.05). There were no differences in gain/feed or daily fecal scores with treatment costs being similar across treatments (P > 0.05). There were no differences in the number of days fecal scores were 3 or higher (1 = normal, 4 = watery, d 1–42) averaging 4.17, 3.73 and 3.77 d, respectively (P = 0.05). Under conditions of this study, calves fed a non-medicated MR formulated with 5 or 10% BP and Lys, Met, and Thr levels balanced across treatments did not affect performance of calves compared with an all milk protein non-medicated MR.

Key Words: calf performance, milk replacer, bovine plasma