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Effect of Pepsin on the Growth and Health of Young Dairy Calves Fed Various Milk-Replacer Rations¹

Departments of Dairy and Agricultural Chemistry, Michigan State University, East Lansing

ABSTRACT

Sixty-four two-day-old Holstein calves were divided into eight groups and placed on experiment for 70 days, to study the value of supplementing various milk-replacer rations with the enzyme pepsin. Four pairs of replacers were fed which ranged from a high-dried skimmilk-no soya flour ration to a no-dried skimmilk-high soya flour ration. The composition of each pair of replacers was the same, except that four contained 0.5% pepsin and four did not. Since the soya flour contained a higher percentage of protein than the dried skimmilk, as the percentage of soya flour increased in the replacers it was necessary to decrease the amount of dried whey and to increase the percentage of cerelose, in order to keep the protein content of the replacers comparable.

Growth rates decreased significantly as the amount of dried skimmilk decreased and the amount of soya flour increased in the ration. Pepsin depressed slightly the rate of growth of all calves.

Pepsin-fed calves tend to consume less calf starter and more hay, and required more feed per pound of gain than did the calves which did not receive pepsin.

Data presented in this study support an earlier observation that the feeding of a pepsin-supplemented, plant protein milk-replacer ration does not improve the performance of calves.

¹ Published with the approval of the Director of the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station as Journal Article No. 23.27.