Effects of different planes of milk feeding and milk total solids concentration on growth, ruminal fermentation, health, and behavior of late weaned dairy calves during summer

Table 4 Effects of milk plane intake and total solids of milk on overall ruminal variables of dairy calves

Items	LPM²		HPM²		SEM¹	P values
Items	12	17	12	17	SEM¹	Milk	TS	PM × TS	Age (A)	PM × A	TS × A	PM × TS × A
NH₃-N, mmol/L	6.42	8.97	15.20	13.64	1.31	< 0.0001	0.71	0.14	< 0.0001	0.01	0.81	0.62
Ruminal pH	5.32	5.52	5.59	5.48	0.08	0.19	0.57	0.08	< 0.0001	0.95	0.33	0.63
Total VFA, mmol/L	122.64	122.71	108.87	116.11	10.12	0.34	0.73	0.73	< 0.0001	0.13	0.17	0.44
Acetate, mmol/L	50.01	51.54	52.91	52.96	1.89	0.28	0.69	0.71	< 0.0001	0.43	0.09	0.90
Propionate, mmol/L	40.49	38.70	37.59	36.33	1.77	0.16	0.41	0.88	< 0.0001	0.42	0.19	0.53
Butyrate, mmol/L	6.61	6.11	5.69	7.14	0.55	0.92	0.42	0.10	< 0.0001	0.51	0.99	0.39
Isobutyrate, mmol/L	0.14^c	0.36^b	0.58^a	0.45^ab	0.08	0.003	0.62	0.04	< 0.0001	0.002	0.30	0.46
Valerate, mmol/L	2.18	2.67	2.17	2.52	0.31	0.80	0.22	0.83	0.05	0.54	0.36	0.33
Isovalerate, mmol/L	0.34	0.58	0.96	0.74	0.13	0.01	0.94	0.11	< 0.0001	0.002	0.27	0.82
Branched chain VFA, mmol/L	2.69	3.62	3.73	3.72	0.42	0.20	0.29	0.29	0.29	0.19	0.23	0.34

¹Standard error of the means
²(1) calves fed low plane of milk (LPM) intake with 12% TS (LPM-12%TS; total milk intake = 383 L; TS intake = 45.9 kg), (2) calves fed LPM intake with 17% TS (LPM-17%TS; total milk intake = 383 L; TS intake = 65.1 kg), (3) calves fed high plane of milk (HPM) intake with 12% TS (HPM-12%TS; total milk intake = 531 L; TS intake = 63.7 kg); and (4) calves fed HPM intake with 17% TS (HPM-17%; total milk intake = 531 L; TS intake = 90.3 kg)
^a–cMeans within a row with different superscripts differ significantly (P < 0.05)

ISSN: 2049-1891