In the US, there are 2 main feed management strategies for rearing dairy calves: (1) offer high amounts of liquid feed to capitalize on efficiency of non-ruminant metabolism, or (2) offer moderate amounts of liquid feed and expect high starter intake to capitalize on ruminant metabolism. Effects of these programs on ruminal volatile fatty acid (VFA) metabolism remain understudied. The objective was to measure relative gene expression of transporters important for VFA absorption in rumens of calves fed 1 of 2 diets formulated to differ in the primary site of digestion after calves were challenged with a supraphysiological concentration of VFA. Neonatal Holstein bull calves (n = 12) were individually housed and randomly assigned one of 2 dietary treatments, balanced to be isoenergetic and isonitrogenous. Diets were milk replacer only (MRO; n = 6), or milk replacer with starter (MRS; n = 6). Milk replacer was 22% CP, 21.5% fat (DM basis) while the textured calf starter was 21.5% CP (DM basis). Milk replacer and starter were adjusted weekly to provide 4.0 MCal of ME/d and 0.17 kg/d of apparent digestible protein. Water was available ad libitum. Milk replacer and starter intake were recorded daily. Calves were euthanized on d 42–44 after a 6 h exposure to supraphysiological concentration of VFA. Rumen tissue was obtained from the ventral sac region; the epithelial portion was separated and preserved for RNA extraction and cDNA synthesis. cDNA was used in quantitative reverse transcription PCR assays. Genes of interest were MCT1, MCT2, MCT4, NHE1, NHE2, and NHE3. Reference genes were RPS9, RPS15, and RPS26. Data were analyzed with a linear model that included the fixed effect of treatment and random effect of calf within treatment. Rumen epithelial gene expression was not affected by diet. It could be surmised that MRS calves had more total gene abundance than MRO calves based on empty reticulorumen weight (0.67 ± 0.04 kg and 0.39 ± 0.04 kg, respectively; P < 0.01), but this data remains to be analyzed. Considering the lack of differences in gene expression it appears that the rumen is able to undertake VFA absorption irrespective of calfhood diet.