Effect of hay allowance on growth of buffalo calves

A study was conduced in order to evaluate the effects of dietary treatment (commercial starter concentrate vs commercial starter concentrate with free access to ryegrass hay) on faecal score, dry matter intake (DMI), body weight (BW) and in vivo digestibility in buffalo calves Twenty-four buffalo calves (4 male, 20 female; 12 calves per treatment) kept in individual calf cages were started on the experiment at 10 d of age and for 12 weeks. Faecal scoring was assessed twice weekly, and DMI was measured weekly. BW gain was recorded every two weeks.. At the end of the experimental period, on a subset of 10 calves (5 per treatment), nutrient in vivo digestibility was measured by using acid-insoluble ash as internal indigestibility marker. The growth curves showed a good fit to a linear -regression model (on average R2=0.89; a= 43.8; b=0.525). Calves that were provided with hay consumed less starter (524 vs 421 g/d; P<0.001) compared to those fed exclusively with starter; total DMI was higher (1313 vs 1443 g/d; P<0.001) in hay supplemented group. Despite of this, however, final BW, total BW gain, average daily gain of calves receiving hay were comparable to that observed in unsupplemented animals. No differences were observed for faecal consistency among the two treatments. Hay supplementation depressed the digestibility coefficients of dry matter, organic matter and crude protein (P<0.001), while it increased those of NDF and hemicellulose (P<0.001). We concluded that hay allowance during milk feeding period of buffalo calves allows to achieve the same growth performance as animal consuming commercial starter alone.