Effect of milk diets on growth performance and carcass composition as veal from Sahiwal-Friesian calves

C. Abu Bakar, R. Moh Salleh and H. Mohamad Shafit

Abstract

The feasibility of rearing male Sahiwal-Friesian (SF) calves for veal production was studied. Thirty calves were grouped according to body weights into groups of three. Within a group, calves were randomly assigned to one of three liquid diets, (CMR = conventional milk replacer for dairy calves, VMR = milk replacer formulated specifically for veal, or FFM = farm-fresh milk). These were given as sole feed for the 9 months duration of the study. Average daily weight gain and weight at slaughter achieved were 0.81 and 246.7; 0.81 and 241.8; 0.74 and 215.4 kg for VMR, CMR, and FFM, respectively. Feed conversion values were similar between VMR and CMR (1.13), but lower for FFM. Values for dressing percentage attained were 58.0, 61.0 and 59.2 for VMR, CMR and FFM, respectively. Total carcass meat yield was highest from calves fed VMR. This was significantly higher than FFM (p <0.05) but not CMR. Producing veal using CMR was cheapest at RM6.82 per kilogramme live-weight compared to RM8.57 and RM13.63 for VMR and FFM, respectively.

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