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 6 Effects of milk plane intake and total solid of milk on overall health parameters during pre-weaning period

Items	LPM²		HPM²		SEM¹	P values
Items	12	17	12	17	SEM¹	PM	TS	PM × TS	Age (A)	PM × A	TS × A	PM × TS × A
Fecal score³	0.12	0.13	0.08	0.17	0.02	0.92	0.01	0.06	< 0.0001	0.44	0.04	0.91
Rectal temperature	38.96	38.88	38.96	39.99	0.047	0.25	0.61	0.35	0.01	0.66	0.03	0.22
Diarrhea occurrence, d	1.96	2.17	1.33	2.92	0.33	0.85	0.01	0.04	–	–	–	–
Pneumonia occurrence, d	0.67	0.37	0.50	0.42	0.16	0.71	0.26	0.53	–	–	–	–
Medical days
Electrolytes	2.75	3.17	2.00	4.67	0.35	0.56	0.02	0.08	–	–	–	–
Diarrhea medicine	4.33	5.50	3.17	7.50	0.54	0.67	0.01	0.10	–	–	–	–
Pneumonia medicine	5.75	6.25	4.25	6.58	0.50	0.53	0.13	0.33	–	–	–	–
Other medicine	2.50	1.92	1.08	1.58	0.24	0.07	0.93	0.26	–	–	–	–

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 LPMintake 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)
³Fecal scores were established as a scale 0–3 (0 = normal, 1 = semi-formed and/or pasty, 2 = loose but stays on top of bedding, and 3 = watery and/or sifts through the bedding) using the Wisconcin-Madison’s Calf Health Scoring chart [32]
^a–cMeans within a row with different superscripts differ significantly (P < 0.05)

ISSN: 2049-1891