Effect of Variation of Protein and Neutral Detergent Fiber Sources in Complete Calf Starter on The Development Indicator of Reticulo Rumen

Mixed calf starter feed and crude fiber source comprising neutral detergent fiber (NDF) as complete calf starter feed (CCS) can enhance the development of reticulo rumen, that can be knwon from indicators i.e. total microbia, volatile fatty acid (VFA) and NH3 rumen. The aimed of this research was to find CCS formulation which gave the most effective enhancement to reticulo rumen development indicators. The materials used were ground corn, rice bran, soybean meal, fish meal, vitamin, mineral, rice and corn straws and 7-14 days old FH calves with 45 ± 5.5 kg body weight. Completely Randomized Design with 2 x 2 factorial pattern was used in this research. The first factor was protein sources, i.e. soybean meal and fish Effect of Variation of Protein (Sri Mukodiningsih et al.) 133 meal, and the second factors was neutral detergent fiber sources (NDF), i.e. rice and corn straws. This research took about 9 weeks. The results indicated that there was a significant effect of the combination of protein source and NDF source on total bacteria and NH3, but there was no significant effect of those on feed intake, dry matter digestibility, avarage daily gain and VFA content. Total rumen bacteria population of the calves fed bya combination of soybean meal and corn straw was the highest (1.08x1011 CFU/ml) compared to those fed with other combinations (P