Effects of extruded diet on the productive performance of weaning and post-weaned calves

Weaning and post-weaned calves were administered a fully-extruded (118°C, 20% humidity, 30 at.) diet, consisting of maize 25%, wheat 15%, soybean meal 21%, 79 TDN, and 17% CP. Compared with the same experimental diet in pellets (70°C, 8 at., control diet), fully-extruded feed resulted in statistically significant improvements in the productive performance of calves. Best results were obtained when administration of milk-replacer stopped. Thus, when calves were fed only the experimental diets, those on the fully-extruded diet showed a higher weight-gain (978 g/day vs. 838 g/day, P < 0.01) and a lower feed conversion ratio (2.63 vs. 3.29, P < 0.001) than control animals. These results suggest that the extrusion technology can be successfully applied to diets for post-weaned calves. © 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.