Growth performance of Red Chittagong and Holstein crossbred bull calves using growth promoter

Abstract

The aim of the study was to evaluate and compare the effect of growth promoter 'Megavit-DB' on growth performance of indigenous Red Chittagong (RC) and Holstein Crossbred (HC) bull calves. For this purpose, six RC and six HC bull calves were assigned into four treatment groups having three calves in each as RCT₀ (RC without Megavit-DB), RCT₁ (RC with Megavit-DB), HCT₀ (HC without Megavit-DB) and HCT₁ (HC with Megavit-DB). The daily DM intake of different treatment groups were found almost similar. The daily average live weight gains were 0.27±0.05, 0.36±0.01, 0.36±0.01 and 0.45±0.05 kg/d, feed conversion efficiency were 9.08±0.16, 7.47±1.07, 7.13±1.24 and 6.16±0.27 and the average net returns (Tk.) were 1473.33±87, 2060±76.38, 1910±86.60 and 2776.67±44.10 for RCT₀, RCT₁, HCT₀ and HCT₁ treatment groups, respectively. The daily average live weight gain and feed conversion efficiency were significantly (p<0.05) higher in HCT₁ than that from RCT₁, HCT₀ and RCT₀. Accordingly, the average net returns were found significantly (p<0.05) higher in HCT₁ than RCT₁, HCT₀ and RCT₀. It may be concluded that Megavit-DB may have the potentials to improve growth performance of both HC and RC and may be used in cattle fattening program.

Keywords: Growth performance; Red Chittagong; Holstein Crossbred; Megavit-DB

DOI: 10.3329/jbau.v8i1.6403

J. Bangladesh Agril. Univ. 8(1): 83-86, 2010