Additional nutritional considerations for preconditioning beef calves.

Calves can be preconditioned using a wide variety of supplemental feed ingredients. However, feed ingredient selection is not the only factor to consider during a preconditioning process. Increasing the protein supply to stressed, preconditioning beef steers led to greater growth performance, and i...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Philipe Moriel
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: The University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries 2017-09-01
Series:EDIS
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ojs.test.flvc.org/edis/article/view/104360
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Calves can be preconditioned using a wide variety of supplemental feed ingredients. However, feed ingredient selection is not the only factor to consider during a preconditioning process. Increasing the protein supply to stressed, preconditioning beef steers led to greater growth performance, and increased immune response to vaccination during a 42-day preconditioning period. Producers should not reduce the frequency of concentrate supplementation during the entire preconditioning period as it might lead to poorer vaccine response and average daily gain (consequently, less calf value at sale). However, a gradual reduction of frequency of supplementation is a supplementation strategy that can overcome these negative effects on growth and immunity, and allows producers to save on feeding and labor costs without producing lighter calves that have weaker immune responses.  
ISSN:2576-0009