[The digestibility of milk substitutes with various soybean products in young calves]

Digestibility trials were performed to study the suitability of mixtures made up of treated soybean and whey powder for replacing skim milk powder. Three different milk replacers were used, the replacers T-18/II and T-18/III containing Plyllac preparations manufactured by different technologies. When using the T-18 preparation with 18% fat content it was found that the protein source may contain 25% Plyllac preparation and 11% sweet whey powder. In two cases, at the age of 5 and 7 weeks, the digestibility of the crude protein in the T-18/II preparation was found to deteriorate significantly. For this reason, the authors suggest this milk replacer to be used from the 5th week of life. Trials were performed with 3 milk replacers (lactine preparations) containing Plyllac preparations of different manufacturing technology (35%), treated soybean (10%) and sweet whey powder (10%). It was found that the use of Plyllac preparations, i.e. of treated soybean in larger amounts causes the nutrient digestibility, mainly that of crude protein, to be significantly lower at the age of 3 and 5 weeks than that at the age of 7 to 9 weeks. No significant differences were found in the digestibility of the various Plyllac preparations manufactured by different technologies. The milk replacer lactine is recommended for use from the 5th week of life on.