The Nutritive Value, Intake, Digestibility and Nitrogen Balance of Farm-grown and Prepared Sunflower-based Dairy Calf Meals

The dry matter intake (DMI), digestibility and nitrogen balance of three sunflower-based farm-grown calf meals with different roughage sources (maize stover, MSM; groundnut tops, GTM; and veld hay, VHM) and a commercial calf starter meal (control; CSM) were studied for 47 days (26 days pre- and 21 days post-weaning) in calves. The DMI was lower (but p> 0.05) with CSM (0.369 kg/day) than with the farm-grown meals (mean 0.559 kg/day), and the daily weight gain (kg/day) did not differ significantly (p>0.05) between CSM (0.107), GTM (0.053), MSM (0.157) and VHM (0.217). Dry matter, organic matter and protein digestibility were higher (p<0.07) on the CSM than on the GTM treatment. Nitrogen retention was least (p <0.05) in calves fed GTM (3.0 g N/day) compared to those fed MSM (10.4), VHM (5.0) or CSM (3.9). These results indicate that farm-grown and prepared sunflower-based meals are suitable for feeding young calves.