Life Sciences Commons^™

Strategies To Improve Calf Performance: Improving Water Quality, Feeding Microbially-Enhanced Soy Protein, And Supplementing Condensed Whey Solubles, Nirosh Dias Senevirathne

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Six experiments were conducted for this dissertation research to evaluate strategies to improve growth performance and health of calves. Growth performance, nutrient utilization, and health effects were evaluated when calves were offered water treated with reverse osmosis system (RW), fed starter pellets supplemented with microbially-enhanced soy protein (MSP) or supplemented condensed whey solubles (CWS). The first two experiments were conducted to determine drinking preference, growth performance, and health of dairy calves offered RW or by a municipal water treatment plant (MW), compared with local untreated well water (WW). First a sequential elimination study was conducted to observed drinking preference of …