title: The Effects of Dietary Phosphorus on the Growth Performance and Phosphorus Excretion of Dairy Heifers.
abstract: The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of reducing dietary phosphorus (P) on the frame size, udder traits, blood parameters and nutrient digestibility coefficient in 8- to 10-month-old Holstein heifers. Forty-five heifers were divided into 15 blocks according to the mo of age and were randomly assigned one of three dietary treatments: 0.26% (low P [LP]), 0.36% (medium P [MP]), or 0.42% (high P [HP]) (dry matter basis). Samples were collected at the wk 1, 4, 8. The results show that low dietary P had no effect on body measurement. The blood P concentration decreased with decreasing dietary P (p<0.05), while the blood calcium content of LP was higher than that of the MP and HP groups (p<0.05), though still in the normal range. The serum contents of alkalinephosphatase, potassium, and magnesium were similar among the treatments. No differences were found in all nutrients' apparent digestibility coefficients with varied dietary P. However, with P diet decreased from HP to LP, the total fecal P and urine P concentration declined significantly, as did fecal water soluble P (p<0.05). In conclusion, reducing the dietary P from 0.42% to 0.26% did not negatively affect the heifers' growth performance but did significantly lessen manure P excretion into the environment.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Dairy Science, College of Animal Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Zhejiang A & F University, Hangzhou, 311300, China.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Dairy Science, College of Animal Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
authors.forename: Z H
authors.initials: ZH
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Institute of Dairy Science, College of Animal Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
authors.forename: H Z
authors.initials: HZ
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Institute of Shanghai Dairy Science, Shanghai 200032, China.
authors.forename: G Z
authors.initials: GZ
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Dairy Science, College of Animal Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
authors.forename: J X
authors.initials: JX
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Dairy Science, College of Animal Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
authors.forename: H Y
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Liu
keywords: Growth Performance; Heifers; Phosphorus; Phosphorus Excretion