WHITE MEAT PRODUCTION OF MILK MALE CALVES USING REPLACEMENT MILK. CHIRIQUI, PANAMA. 2003.

Abstract

This study conducted in a producer farmer located over 1,100 masm during 120 days. The aim of this research was to evaluate the bioeconomic profitability of feeding milk males for producing white meat using commercial replacement milk (RM). Two concentrations of RM and the addition of one probiotic were tested. There were two treatments: T1 (0.110 kg of RM / 1L H₂O) and T2 (0.125 kg of RM / 1L H₂O + 7.0 g of probiotic/head/day). Eight Holstein or crossing (3/4 Holstein x 1/4 Brown Swiss) male calves were randomly (4 animal/treatment) utilized. Calves’s age of entry was 2.4 (T1) and 3.5 (T2) weeks, and they were slaughtered with 18.1 (T1) and 18.3 (T2) weeks of age. Each seven days animals were weighted, daily gain weight (DGW) and milk intake were determined, and also, expenses and investments were registered for economic evaluation. Results indicated that there was not significant differences between treatments (P<0.05). The DGW for T1 and T2 was 0.413 and 0.588 kg/animal/day, respectively (T2 was 42% higher than T1). The RM utilized in this study covered 79 and 109% of the protein requirements for animals in T1 and T2, respectively. On the other hand, the RM supplied 89% in T1 and 97% in T2 of the total energy requirement. Total meat yield during the study period was 47.3% and 64.0 kg/animal for T1 and T2. The DGW increased from week 10^th, differentiating two stages, which revealed significant differences (P<0.01) on each treatment. On the first stage (FS) DGW was 0.291 and 0.389 kg/animal/day for T1 and T2, respectively, while for the second stage (SS) the DGW was 0.546 and 0.808 kg/animal/day for T1 and T2, respectively. Milk intake on FS was 0.51 and 2.8 for T1 and T2, respectively. Milk intake on FS was 0.67 and 3.86 kg/animal/day for T1 and T2, respectively. Mean feeding efficiency for both treatments was 4.6 kg of milk (powder milk) for each generated kilogram of meat, which, by the way, is considered low. This is probably because of the protein quality utilized for preparing the RM. Cost analysis per treatment indicated that the profitability on T2 was 27.7% and on T1 it was 18%, resulting in a net income of 67.63 and 136.35 dollars/animal for T1 and T2, respectively.