Pre-weaning Treatments

The growth potential of livestock breeds of Pakistan remains under-utilized because of underfeeding and bad management. Neglected calves during their pre-weaning or post-weaning periods result in poor growth rate and delayed age at puberty due to being underweight. Main reason for neglected calves is their high feeding cost and fewer returns from their sale. The strategies to reduce the feeding cost during pre-weaning period include using milk replacers, weaning the calves at an early age and putting them on solid feeds or decrease the age at first calving through accelerated growth prior to puberty and breed at an early age. However, the growth performance of calves fed milk replacers, during pre-weaning period, is inferior to milk fed calves even on the equivalent gross composition basis. There are contradictory reports on the effects of milk or milk replacer during pre-weaning on the post-weaning intake and growth performance of calves.