Application Of Artemisia Argyi Powder In Pellet Diets For Calves

Feeding management during the calf period is one of the important links in the dairy farming industry.Artemisia argyi is a relatively high-quality antibiotic substitute when used as a Chinese herbal feed additive,which not only has normal medicinal properties but also has certain nutritional value.The rational development and utilization of Artemisia argyi is of great significance to increase calf’s feed intake,feed digestibility and growth and development level as soon as possible,and to reduce the occurrence of early calf diseases.The experiment selected 30 suckling and weaned calves,and randomly assigned them into 3 groups,the control group,the treatment group 1 and the treatment group2,each group had 10 replicates.The control group was fed basal diet + common calf pellets;the treatment group 1 was fed basal diet + common calf pellets supplemented with 5% Artemisia argyi powder;The treatment group 2 was fed basal diet +common diet at the beginning,and the common diet was changed to treatment diet after 1 month to study the effect of the refueling on the calves.The test period was60 days each.Results:Experiment 1:The addition of Artemisia argyi powder improves the growth performance of the suckling calves.The treatment group 1 was compared with the control group,the final weight increased by 5.51%(p<0.05),the average daily gain increased by 9.2%(p<0.01),the feed intake of the starter increased by 12.4%(p<0.05),and the index of chest measurement increased by 3.8%(p<0.05),body height,body straight length,and body oblique length all have an increasing trend(p>0.05).After 30 days of changing the test material,the treatment group 2 was compared with the control group,the final weight increased by 4.97%(p<0.05),the average daily gain increased by 9.0%(p<0.01),the feed intake of the starter increased by 11.4%(p<0.05),and the index of chest measurement increased by 4.0%(p<0.05).There is no significant difference in other body size indicators(p>0.05).The addition of Artemisia argyi powder reduced the fecal index of suckling calves and reduced the incidence of calf diarrhea.The treatment group 1 was compared with the control group,fecal index decreased by 51.6% from 31 to 40 days(p<0.05),the treatment group 2 fecal index decreased by 45.2%(p<0.05).Experiment 2:The addition of Artemisia argyi powder improves the growth performance of the weaned calves.The treatment group 1 was compared with the control group,the final weight increased by 8.3%(p<0.05),the average daily gain increased by 20.9%(p<0.05),the feed intake of pellets increased by 12.0% from 60 to 70 days(p<0.05),all other periods have an increasing trend(p>0.05).The body height increased by2.6%(p<0.05),the body straight length increased by 3.0%(p<0.05),the body oblique length increased by 3.2%(p<0.05),and the index of chest measurement increased by 3.9%(p<0.05).After 90 days of changing the test material,the treatment group 2 was compared with the control group,the final weight increased by 2.6%(p>0.05),the average daily gain increased by 10.0%(p<0.05),the feed intake of pellets decreased by 8.3% from 91 to 100 days(p<0.05),the difference in body size index was no significant(p>0.05).Conclusion:Adding Artemisia argyi powder to the pellets can significantly improve the growth performance of the calves and improve the early diarrhea of the calves.