Influence of different water access status of suckling calves on performance, water intake behavior and some blood metabolites

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the effects of water accessibility of pre-weaning calves during milk feedingmeal on performance, water intake behavior and some blood metabolites. Forty-eight Holstein calves (39.2 ± 5.8 kg of BW) were assigned to 4 treatments, which consisted of different water accessibility: 1) Ad libitum water (AW), 2) Water not available (WNA), 3) Water available after milk feeding (WAM) and 4) Water available before milk feeding (WBM). Resulted showed different water accessibility changed water consumption of calves. The water intake of AW (1.03 kg/d) and WBM (1.07 kg/d) treatments were higher than others. Starter intake of WBM decreased (P