Saied Hamedi- Maralani, Mehdi Taginedjad-Roudbaneh and Sima Moghaddaszadeh-Ahrabi
This study was conducted to investigate the effects feeding of starters containing steam flaked wheat and barley via ground on feed intake, weight gain and performance of Holstein milking calves. 20 male Holstein calves were selected and randomly assigned in 5 experimental groups (4 in each). The groups includes: Control group (starter diet including corn ground), group GB (starter diet including corn ground + barley ground), group SFB (starter diet including corn ground + steam flaked barley), group GW (starter diet including corn ground + wheat ground), group SFW (starter diet including ground corn +wheat flaked).Results showed the body weight gain of calves who received steam flaked barley in their starter had a significant difference with the other groups and control group (p<0.05). Also the FCR of steam flaked barley had a significant difference (p<0.05) with control group (p<0.05). The FCR of group who received ground barley did not show statistical difference compared to groups that received ground wheat and steam flaked wheat (p>0.05), while FCR in calves who received ground barley had significant difference with control group (p<0.05). Results showed a significant difference in feed intake between experimental groups and control group (p<0.05). The calves who received steam flaked barley, ground barley, steam flaked wheat, steam flaked wheat and ground wheat had respectively, 42.2%, 36.6%, 32% and 31% more feed intake than control group.
