After 3 months of age, the calves attain about 60-70 Kg body weight under normal feeding condition. In this phase rumen developed substantially and microbial digestion in rumen become functional and beyond 3 months of age suckling is usually not allowed except for very short period to facilitate milk let down. Hence, the major portion of nutrient requirements has to be met from concentrate or roughage source. Generally, at this phase protein and energy level of diet are kept similar to those fed upto 3 month age. However, there is reasonable ability of compensatory feed intake if calves are given low plane of energy and protein.  Thus a palatable diet containing 13-14 % crude protein and 60-62% total digestible nutrient may support 500-600 g average daily growth rate. Any of the following feeding schedules presented in table 3 can be followed.

Table 3 Feeding schedule for calves from 3 to 6 months of age

#A concentrate mixture can be prepared by mixing crushed cereal grain (maize, jowar, barley, oat, etc.), groundnut cake or cottonseed cake or soybean cake, mustard cake, wheat bran, mineral mixture and salt in the ratio of 30: 27: 10: 20: 2:1 or 15:22:5:55:2:1 or 30:20:0:45:2:1 or 0:20:0:77:2:1.

contributed by S.S Paul and Sunesh