Liquefied cheese as a novel milk replacer ingredient for neonatal calves

Byproduct cheese (American, mozzarella, provolone) can be liquefied and used as an ingredient for the formulation and manufacture of neonatal calf milk replacers. This study evaluated the optimal inclusion rate for maintaining or improving growth and health performance of neonatal calves. Eighty 2- to 5-d old neonatal Holstein bull calves were blocked by initial BW and randomly allocated to 1 of 4 treatments for 56 d using a randomized complete block design with linear, quadratic, and cubic contrasts. Treatments consisted of a 22:20 (CP:fat) AA-balanced base milk replacer (MR) with liquefied cheese (38:41; CP:fat) inclusion rates of 0.00% (control; 0), 4.27%, 8.54%, and 17.08% by replacing whey and fat ingredients. Calves received 0.283 kg of MR in 1.9 L fed twice daily for the first 14 d, then increased to 0.43 kg in 2.84 L fed twice daily though d 35, followed by 0.43 kg MR in 2.84 L fed once daily through d 42, followed by weaning. The MR ash, Ca, P, and Na concentrations increased with increasing cheese inclusion rate. Regardless of treatments, all calves were similar in BW (62.1, 63.3, 60.6, and 61.6 kg for 0.00%, 4.27%, 8.54%, and 17.08%, respectively), BW gain (37.4, 40.3, 36.7, and 35.7 kg), and ADG (667.0, 720.0, 654.8 and 636.7 g/d). Calf starter intakes were similar among calves fed all MR treatments (0.79, 0.84, 0.78, and 0.74 kg/d), whereas a cubic response for greater feed efficiency was demonstrated for calves fed 4.27% cheese compared with calves fed 8.54% cheese with other calves fed treatments being intermediate and similar (0.522, 0.555, 0.493, and 0.516 kg/kg). Body length, heart girth, withers height, hip height, and hip width gains were similar for calves fed all treatments. Fecal scores were similar for calves fed all treatments; however, fecal color was observed to vary with cheese inclusion rates. This study demonstrates that neonatal calves can be fed a MR containing up to 17.08% cheese resulting in similar growth performance and feed conversions. The use of cheese could lower feeding costs if economics are favorable for incorporating cheese into the MR.