Growth and Blood Parameters of Weaned Crossbred Beef Calves Fed Forage Kale (Brassica oleracea spp. acephala)

Table 1

Live weight and average daily gain of calves fed kale/haylage (Kale) ration compared to intensively managed pasture (Pasture), haylage (Haylage), or a control hay ration with 1 kg d⁻¹ of barley (Control).

Treatments	Start	Period 1	Period 2	Period 3
Live weight (kg)
Control	206.4	236.9	267.6	274.2^a
Pasture	206.4	240.0	288.7	323.6^c
Kale	206.4	230.0	252.3	279.6^b
Haylage	206.2	237.8	250.5	277.4^ab
SEM	3.2	3.7	3.9	4.1
Average daily gain (kg d^−1)
Control	—	1.13^ae	1.10^ae	0.24^ad
Pasture	—	1.24^bd	1.74^be	1.74^ce
Kale	—	0.87^a	0.80^a	0.97^b
Haylage	—	1.17^ae	0.46^ad	0.96^be
SEM	—	0.05	0.05	0.05

 ^a,b,cValues within the same column with different superscripts differ ().
^d,eValues within the same row with different superscripts differ ().