Sabin GeorgeKAMALAHASAN.K2020-07-272020-07-272018http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810149851The present study was conducted to study the growth performance and economics of feeding different milk replacers in crossbred calves. Eighteen healthy crossbred calves both male and female around one week of age were selected and randomly divided into three groups of six each (T1, T2, and T3), as uniformly as possible with regard to age, sex, and body weight. The calves of T1 received whole milk as per routine farm practice, T2 group was offered commercial milk replacer as per manufacturers recommendations and T3 group was offered a formulated milk replacer @ 12.5 per cent of body weight. The milk and milk replacers fed to T1, T2 and T3 groups had 25.68, 20.63 and 24.85 per cent crude protein respectively. The calf starter and green fodder provided to calves contained 21.4 and 12.18 per cent crude protein respectively. The green fodder was offered ad libitum to all the calves. The dry matter intake (DMI), body weight gain, body measurements, feed conversion efficiency (FCE), faecal consistency score, haematological values and digestibility of nutrients were calculated along with the techno-economics of calf feeding. There was significant difference (P<0.01) in average daily DMI (kg) among different dietary treatments T1 (0.800), T2 (0.704) and T3 (0.640). The mean cumulative feed conversion efficiency was lowest in T2 (3.50±0.44) calves than T1 (2.61±0.13) and T3 (2.59±0.26). Average initial body weight of the calves in T1, T2 and T3 were 25.83±1.64, 25±1.15 and 24.16±1.27 kg, respectively. The mean final body weight (kg) was maximum in T1 (53.95±4.00) followed by T3 (47.9±2.80) and lowest in T2 (44.26±2.33). The average daily gain (g) in body weight (ADG) of calves were high in T1 (312.33) followed by T3 (263.66) and T2 (214). The mean body measurements for length, height at withers and heart girth at the start and end of the experiment were not significantly different between groups. There was no significant difference in faecal consistency score among the groups. Haematological parameters such as haemoglobin, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), plasma total protein, glucose, calcium and phosphorus recorded at the beginning and at the end of the experiment were not significantly differenct (P>0.05). The digestibility of nutrients was not having significant difference (P>0.05) among the treatment groups. The feed cost per kg weight gain in T1, T2 and T3 were Rs. 375.68, 333.11 and 249.67 respectively. The total feeding cost was maximum in T1 and minimum in T3. Based on the study it could be concluded that feeding of formulated milk replacer is better option for commercial dairy producers and farmers.ennullThesis