Abstract #M261

# M261
Predicting weekly calf starter intake by measuring calf starter intake once, twice, or three times a week.
Yu Liang*1, Emily Davis1, Tyler Batchelder1, Michael Ballou1, 1Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX.

The objectives of these analyses were to investigate the relationships and the degrees of associations between measuring calf starter intake daily and using once, twice, or 3 times a week measurements to predict weekly calf starter intake. Data from 180 Holstein calves from 2 experiments that represented 9 different treatments were used in the analyses. All calves were fed 700 g of a 22% CP and 20% fat milk replacer daily and offered ad libitum access to either a pelleted (n = 80 calves) or a texturized (n = 100 calves) calf starter. All calves were weaned at 56 d of age. The quantities of calf starter refused from the previous day and the amount offered each day were recorded, so daily starter intake could be calculated. Average weekly starter intake was calculated from the daily measurements and used as the dependent variable in all subsequent analyses. Additionally, average weekly starter intake was estimated by measuring starter intake once, twice, or 3 times weekly and used as the independent variables. Data were collected for the first 8 weeks of life and simple linear regression models were analyzed by week using Proc Reg in SAS (v. 9.4). The median coefficients of determination were 0.923, 0.955, and 0.966 and median slope estimates were 0.900, 0.920, and 0.953 for the once, twice, or 3 times weekly calf starter intake measurements, respectively. The first week had the lowest degree of association 0.708, 0.801, and 0.899 and the lowest slope estimates 0.718, 0.874, and 0.880 for the once, twice, or 3 times weekly measurements, respectively. These data indicate that measuring calf starter intake once a week can be used to estimate a calf’s weekly starter intake. Implications of these data are that experimental designs where collection of daily calf starter intakes are not feasible can estimate individual weekly calf starter intake by measuring it once weekly.

Key Words: calf, intake, starter