A survey of pre-weaning calf management in Norwegian dairy herds

Abstract

The knowledge on dairy calves’ needs with regards to milk feeding and social housing is expanding but to be able to make improvements, knowledge is needed on how calves are managed at present in Norway. The aim of this study was to describe selected milk-feeding practices and social housing procedures for young (pre-weaning) dairy calves in Norwegian herds. A short questionnaire was distributed to a random sample of 912 dairy producers. For each herd, we asked how much milk was fed to 3 week old dairy calves, number of daily milk feedings, usage of milk replacer, number of weeks calves were housed in single pens, and whether calves at 3 weeks had free access to drinking water. In total, 508 herd managers responded to the questionnaire (56% response rate). Descriptive statistics showed that median milk allowance for 3 week old calves was seven (IQR 6–8) L milk/d, ranging from 2 to 15 L/day. Consequently, 311 (61%) herds reportedly fed less than the current industry recommendation in Norway (8 L milk/d to young calves). Automatic milk feeders were used by 30 herds (6%). In herds feeding milk manually (n = 471), half of the herds (50%) fed milk twice daily. Median number of daily milk feedings was 3 (31%) while 13% fed four times/day or more frequent (6%). Of the 226 producers (46%) who reported to use milk replacer, this milk type was used from the calf age of (median) 2 weeks. Of all herds, 82 (16%) did not provide their 3 week old calves with free access to drinking water. In the surveyed herds, calves were housed in single pens for (median) 2 weeks (IQR 2–3), while legislation allows single housing until the age of 8 weeks. In conclusion, the milk allowances reported in this survey are low compared to industry recommendations which again are low compared to voluntary intakes of young dairy calves. Free access to drinking water is important to calf welfare but was not granted to all dairy calves. Most calves were reportedly group housed at an early age, which indicates an improved awareness with regards to the importance of social housing.

Effect of Raising Dairy Heifers on Their Performance and Reproduction after 12 Months

“…There was a higher LBW in the RS group compared with the CR group. Our results are consistent with other findings [9,14,61] that the growth of suckling calves (RS) are higher than those artificially reared (CR), which probably received less valuable liquid nutrition [5,6,12,[62][63][64].…”

“…Calves born to cows under heat stress during the dry period are lighter at birth and have lower postnatal growth and passive immunity than calves born to cooled cows [28,38,39,41,[68][69][70][71]. These seasonal differences are likely caused by seasonal metabolic adaptations to enhance survival of the calf in different circumstances [64,66,67,72].…”

Welfare of calves

“…In conventional dairy farms, weaning occurs much earlier compared with when cow and calf are kept in extensive conditions or in cow–calf systems. Gradual weaning may be initiated as early as 4–6 weeks of life, but replacement dairy calves are commonly weaned off milk at 8–12 weeks of age (Drackley, 2008 ; Johnsen et al., 2021 ; Mahendran et al., 2022 ). Weaning strategies can be strictly age‐related but individual weaning schemes are also used, taking calf weight, concentrate intake or a combination hereof into account.…”

“…When housed individually, calves must be able to see and touch other calves. In the EU there is a general increasing tendency of housing calves younger than 8 weeks in groups (Marcé et al., 2010 ; Johnsen et al., 2021 ; Mahendran et al., 2022 ), although figures from specific MSs indicate a different picture. For instance, a survey from Austria indicated that approximately 90% of farms housed calves individually after birth and 23% of these did so for longer than 6 weeks (Klein‐Jöbstl et al., 2015 ), a survey from the Czechia indicated that 97% of farms housed calves individually for a median of 8 weeks (Staněk et al., 2014 ), and a study from the UK indicated that the most prevalent initial type of housing used for newborn calves is individual housing (83/216, 38.4%), with pair housing used by 23.1% (50/216), and group housing of greater than 2 calves used by 35.6% (77/216) of the holdings (Mahendran et al., 2022 ).…”

A Markov Chain Model for Determining the Optimal Time to Move Pregnant Cows to Individual Calving Pens

“…However, recent research suggests that calving facilities offer no opportunity for cows to seek seclusion during calving, which is a behavior observed in wild and domesticated ungulates before calving [7,10,11]. The discrepancy between current practice and recommendations places dairy cow welfare at risk and calls for further research and development in calving management systems [12]. A study has also observed that socially dominant cows are more likely to calve in an individual pen, while the presence of newly born calves to other cows may also influence calving behavior [13].…”