The age at first consumption of forage in calves and its effect on growth and rumination in the short- and long-term

Table 8 Effect of the age at first forage consumption on rumen fermentation throughout the experiment (d 1, 7, 35, 84 and 196)

Item	Treatment				SEM	P value
Item	CON	EHAY	MHAY	LHAY	SEM	Trt	Time	Trt × Time
pH	6.16	6.15	6.18	6.18	0.05	0.90	< 0.01	0.49
NH₃-N, mmol/L	6.41	7.48	6.75	6.88	0.54	0.51	< 0.01	0.65
Total VFA, mmol/L	46.5	45.1	44.3	52.6	5.42	0.76	< 0.01	0.76
Acetate, mol/100 mol	50.8	51.7	50.5	53.0	0.96	0.34	< 0.01	0.51
Propionate, mol/100 mol	29.6	28.0	29.3	26.6	1.02	0.11	< 0.01	0.94
Butyrate, mol/100 mol	14.3	15.2	13.6	16.0	0.92	0.33	< 0.01	0.78
Acetate/Propionate	1.85	2.04	1.93	2.14	0.08	0.08	< 0.01	0.85

CON Calves were fed starter concentrate without forage from d 1 to 84, HAY Starter concentrate and forage were fed to calves free choice from d 1 to 84, EHAY Calves began to consume forage at the earliest (from d 4 to 6), MHAY Calves began to consume the forage from d 7 to 9, LHAY Calves began to consume forage at latest (from d 10 to 15) time possible

ISSN: 2049-1891