Effect of Divergent Feeding Regimes During Early Life on the Rumen Microbiota in Calves.

The objective of this study was to determine whether divergent feeding regimes during the first 41 weeks of the life of a calf are associated with long-term changes in the rumen microbiota and the associated fermentation end-products. Twenty-four calves (9 ± 5 days of age) were arranged in a 2 × 2 factorial design with two divergent treatments across three dietary phases. In phase 1 (P01), calves were offered a low-milk volume/concentrate starter diet with early weaning (CO) or high-milk volume/pasture diet and late weaning (FO).

Effect of Methane Inhibitors on Ruminal Microbiota During Early Life and Its Relationship With Ruminal Metabolism and Growth in Calves.

The present study aimed to determine whether dietary supplementation with methanogen inhibitors during early life may lead to an imprint on the rumen microbial community and change the rumen function and performance of calves to 49-weeks of rearing. Twenty-four 4-day-old Friesian x Jersey cross calves were randomly assigned into a control and a treatment group. Treated calves were fed a combination of chloroform (CF) and 9,10-anthraquinone (AQ) in the solid diets during the first 12 weeks of rearing.

Impact of early weaning on small intestine, metabolic, immune and endocrine system development, growth and body composition in artificially reared lambs.

AbstractThis study evaluated the effect of early weaning (EW) of artificially reared lambs using a restricted milk replacer (MR) feeding and step-down weaning system on the short- and long-term effects on growth, feed intake, selected blood metabolites and hormones, body composition, and small intestine development. Mixed-sex twin-born 2 to 5 d old lambs were randomly allocated to individual pens and fed MR at 20% of initial individual BW in week 1 and 15% in week 2 followed by weaning off MR by the end of week 4 (EW; n = 16) or week 6 (Control; Ctrl, n = 16) using a step-down procedure. Concentrate starter and fiber diets were offered ad libitum to week 9, then gradually removed over a 10-d period.

Impact of weaning age on rumen development in artificially reared lambs1.

This study examined the impact of weaning age (4 vs. 6 wk) on rumen morphological and metabolic development in artificially reared lambs. Thirty-two mixed-sex lambs (2 to 5 d old) were randomly allocated to 1 of 2 weaning groups: early weaning (EW; 4 wk) and control (Ctrl; 6 wk).