Peculiarities of growth of Simmental bull calves using different raising technologies

The purpose of the work was to establish the characteristics of the growth and development of bull calves of the Simmental breed depending on the raising technology: 1 – traditional technology, which is used on farms (indoors); 2 – using graziery and finishing. The raising technology had a significant impact on the live weight of bull calves and on the amount of gain in different age periods. The difference in the arithmetic average live weight between groups I and II was: at 6 months – 11.2 kg (P>0.99); at 14 months – 20.3 kg (P>0.999); at 18 months – 43.9 kg (P>0.999) in favor of bull calves of the second experimental group. During the entire growing period, the average daily gain of bull calves of group II was 80 g greater than that of bull calves of group I. On average, by the age of one and a half years, bull calves of group II were 43.9 kg heavier than their herdmates of group I. At 14 months of age, per 1 kg of live weight gain, 4.09 energetic feed units were consumed in group II and 4.50 in group I, which is 0.41 energetic feed units less, and at 18 months of age, 7.02 and 7.74 energetic feed units respectively, which is 0.72 energetic feed units less. At 18 months of age, the digestibility coefficients in both groups were high, but in young animals of group II, the digestibility coefficients of fiber were 18.2% and fat 17.9% higher than in bull calves from group I. Thus, judging by the coefficient of digestibility of all nutrients and especially by the digestibility coefficient of fiber for all periods of the experiment, the highest ability to digest substances was developed in bull calves of group II, which were raised on diets with a high specific weight of bulk succulent feed.