The effect of the dustiness of the diet fed to young calves on their health, performance and kashrut

Pulmonary disease in cattle causes heavy damages to fattening profitability. The reasons for diminished profits are mortality, cost of treatment and reduced kashrut status, which in turn reduces beef prices. Fattening young calves from a dairy herd and imported calves is based on serving dry feeds. On many farms calves are given dry feeds until they are slaughtered. The hypothesis of this study was that eating powdery feeds causes calves to inhale solid food particles into their respiratory system. It is possible that some of these particles remain in the lungs and are not expelled by coughing. They may constitute a substrate for bacterial contamination and cause pulmonary disease. This study has examined the performance and kashrut of approximately 200 calves over a period of three years, during which half of the calves were fed a mixture of powdery feeds, and the other half were given less-powdery feeds. For the first two years the less-powdery feeds were created by wetting the same powdery feeds as those of the other group, and in the third year - by replacing the powdery feeds with concentrated pellets and vetch as a roughage source.
The summation of the three years’ findings does not support the research hypothesis. Within the range of feeds given and the different degrees of the diets' dustiness, we have not found any consistent effect of dustiness on the morbidity rates, kashrut status and performance of the calves.