Effects of skim milk and whey-based milk replacers on feed intake and growth of dairy calves

The aim of this study was to provide information concerning calf performance when dairy calves are fed milk replacers (MR) in which skim milk powder is partly or completely replaced by whey products and wheat protein. A feeding experiment comprised 30 dairy bull calves. During the pre-weaning the calves received three different MRs. The main ingredients of MR1 were skim milk powder (418 g/kg dry matter), whey powder (409) and vegetable oil (163). MR2 included less skim milk powder (300) compared to MR1 including whey powder (283), vegetable oil (190), whey fractions (100), hydrolysed wheat protein (65) and wheat starch (50). MR3 did not include skim milk powder while the main ingredients were whey powder (448), whey fractions (300) vegetable oil (160) and hydrolysed wheat protein (70). Live weight gain of the MR2 calves was 14% higher compared to the MR3 calves during the pre-weaning but there were no differences when compared MR1 calves to other treatments. No treatment differences were observed in gain during post-weaning or average during the experiment. There were no differences in feed conversion among treatments. The results indicated that both skim milk powder and whey-based products were suitable energy sources in MR.