VERMICULITE ENRICHED WITH EXTRACT FROM PROCESSED FOREST PRODUCTS, IN FEEDING CALVES

The article presents the results of studies on the use of expanded vermiculite, enriched with an extract from forest products, in feeding calves. The studies were conducted on two groups of analogue calves (control and experimental) with different feeding conditions: the control group received the main diet; experimental - in addition to the main diet, she received a dried mixture (20 g/animal/day), consisting of expanded vermiculite enriched with an aqueous extract of pine flour, pine nut shells and arabinogalactan. In the experiment, the growth and metabolic parameters of calves were studied. As a result, it was found that the inclusion of the tested mineral-vegetable feed additive in the diet of calves had a positive effect on their growth intensity and metabolic rates in the body, making it possible to increase the average daily gain in live weight of animals by 5.34%, the absolute increase – by 5.47%, relative increase – by 1.97 percentage points, increase the content of calcium in the blood by 3.67%, albumin – by 8.84%, total protein – by 10.25%.