ABSTRACT - The effects of different concentrate levels on the ingestive behavior were studied with five rumen and abomasum fistulated Holstein bull calves, with average initial age of 10.8±0.8 months and average 233.4±26.1 kg BW. The animals were housed in individual stalls and ad libitum fed diets containing 30, 45, 60, 75 and 90% of concentrate, on DM basis. The diets contained, approximately, 16% CP were formulated for body weight gain of 1.0 kg/day and constituted of soybean meal corn ground grain in the concentrate and coast-cross grass hay as forage. A randomized complete blocks design, with five treatments, throughout 20 days, 12 days of adaptation and four periods of two days, relative to the data collection, was used. The eating and ruminating time decreased, while the idle time linearly increased, as the concentrate levels in the diets increased. The feeding efficiency in g DM/h showed quadratic behavior, and the maximum estimated value was 826.81 g NDF/h, for the level of 60.77% of concentrate. The rumination efficiency, g DM/h, and g NDF/h increased and decreased linearly, respectively, as the concentrate levels in the diets increased. The number of ruminate boli and the ruminating chews per day linearly decreased. The number and the ruminating chews per bolus showed a quadratic behavior, and maximum values of 73.79 ruminating chews and 66.61 seconds, per ruminate boli, were estimated for the levels of 48.51 and 54.44% of concentrate, respectively.
Holstein calves; ingestive behavior; concentrate; rumination chews rumination
