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Three fish protein sources and milk by-products were used in milk replacers. Thirty Holstein heifer calves were fed five different milk replacers as follows: all-milk nitrogen control, and four with 65% of the nitrogen supplied by steam-dried herring meal and the remaining nitrogen from milk as: (a) skim milk powder, (b) skim milk and acid whey powders; and (c) acid whey powder partially neutralized with NaOH or (d) Ca(OH)2. Body weight gains were greater for calves fed the control milk replacer; from birth to 26 wk of age, calves weaned from this milk replacer gained 822 g/day, compared with 662, 731, 741 and 699 g/day, respectively, on diets a to d noted above (P 2, compared with 81% when it was neutralized with NaOH. Three milk replacers containing 62% of the total nitrogen from herring meal, isopropanol-extracted fish protein concentrate (FPC), or predigested FPC were compared using six Holstein bull calves in two 3 × 3 latin squares. Apparent digestion of dry matter and energy by the calves was similar for the three diets. Nitrogen digestibility was 82% in the herring meal and 86% in the predigested FPC diet (P

Two experiments were carried out with Holstein heifer calves to determine the effect of supplying a major portion of the protein in milk replacers by isopropanol-extracted protein concentrate from whole herring (FPC) or a mixture of FPC and soybean protein concentrate (SPC). Milk replacers were compared with whole milk in experiment 1. All calves were abruptly weaned when consuming 0.5 kg starter/day, or by 5 weeks of age. Calf performance was similar when the pre-weaning liquid diet was whole milk, or milk replacers containing either milk protein or 50% of the protein from FPC. Average daily gains to weaning and to 26 weeks of age for all calves were 377 and 692 g/day, respectively. Calves in experiment 2 were fed either an all-milk protein milk replacer or one containing 98% of the protein equally from FPC and SPC. Both milk replacers were fed once daily either six or seven times per week. Calf growth to weaning was lower on the FPC–SPC formula (283 vs. 364 g/day, P