Performance in dairy cows and calves with or without cow-calf contact on pasture

Johanssen, Juni Rosann E.; Adler, Steffen; Johnsen, Julie Føske; Sørheim, Kristin; Bøe, Knut Egil

doi:10.1016/j.livsci.2024.105502

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 55 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…With limited sample size, this clearly affects the mean yield. This finding is in line with two other recent Norwegian studies; one studying a cow-directed CCC system, demonstrating mean AMS yield during the suckling period 13.2 ± 7.8 kg, 10 ] and one study on CCC cows kept on pasture (mean daily machine milk yield during the suckling period 10.8 ± 5.5 kg, [ 11 ]). In comparison, Norwegian Red cows with no CCC were found to produce 27.9 ± 8.65 kg.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 89%

Cow-calf contact: a single-herd observational study of AMS yield during the first 100 days in milk

Hanssen,

Amundsen,

Johnsen

2024

Acta Vet Scand

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

An increasing number of dairy farmers plan to implement cow-calf contact (CCC) in their herd which necessitates descriptions of the cows` performance in different systems. The aim of the study was to describe (1) Automatic milking system (AMS) milk yield of cows in a CCC system during the first 100 days in milk (DIM) and (2) AMS milk yield before and after cow-calf separation. In a prospective study at a commercial Norwegian dairy farm, we included all calvings from Norwegian Red cows between January 2019 to April 2020. After calving, cow-calf pairs stayed in an individual calving pen during the first 5–6 d before they were moved to the loose housing unit with the remaining herd. Calves had whole-day (24 h/d) and full physical contact to the cows. Cows were milked in an AMS. From 14 individual cows of which one cow calved twice during the study period, we collected daily AMS yields from 15 different lactations, with parities ranging from 1 (n = 6), 2 (n = 5) and 3 (n = 4). Due to the sample size and structure of the data set, we only calculated descriptive statistics from DIM 7-100. All data is shown separately for primiparous and multiparous cows. Mean (± SD) calf age at (fence-line) separation was 52 d ± 14.8 beyond which suckling was prevented. Our data indicates great individual variation in the AMS milk yield. Prior to separation, primiparous cows` AMS yields ranged from 11.0 to 25.9 kg/d while that of multiparous cows ranged from 4.8 to 28.8 kg/d. Once calves were no longer allowed to suckle, the yield increased gradually. During the week after separation, AMS yields ranged from 17.3 to 30.4 kg/d for primiparous cows and 8.7 to 41.8 kg/d for multiparous cows and these yields increased in DIM 93–100 (26.5 to 34.3 and 20.6 to 38.3 kg/d respectively). This study is limited by a low sample size from a single-herd but may provide useful descriptions of AMS milk yield in a whole-day, full contact CCC system during the first 100 days of lactation.

show abstract

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 89%

Cow-calf contact: a single-herd observational study of AMS yield during the first 100 days in milk

Hanssen,

Amundsen,

Johnsen

2024

Acta Vet Scand

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Comparison of suckling and artificial rearing on calf growth and milk requirements in pastoral dairy systems

Bryant,

Beckett,

Tey

et al. 2024

Anim. Prod. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Context Dairy calf-rearing practises have the potential to influence profitability through milk requirements at rearing, and affect lifetime productivity and market access from an animal-welfare perspective. Aims The aim of this research was to compare calf growth and milk requirements by using conventional artificial rearing (AR) and restricted milk allocation with AR and high milk allocation or suckled calves. Methods Forty-five Friesian × Jersey calves were allocated to be either AR on 6 L/calf.day, (ARC) or 12 L/calf.day, (ARH), or suckled with dams in a cow–calf contact system using partial contact (15 h/day, CCC). AR calves were fed, and intake measured, using an automatic feeder, whereas CCC calves had access to their dams between 1500 hours and 0600 hours. Calves were transitioned off milk, once they reached at least 75 kg liveweight (LW), by gradually reducing their milk allocation (AR) or reducing access to their dam (CCC). Key results Milk consumption for ARH was greater than for ARC calves (382 vs 450 L/calf, P < 0.05), whereas for CCC calves milk-yield difference between dams for the control and suckling groups during the suckling period and over the full season was 706 and 1048 L/cow respectively. There was no difference in weaning weight of calves (87 ± 1.7 kg LW), but, owing to differences in pre-weaning growth rate, age to weaning was youngest (P < 0.05) for CCC (55 days), followed by ARH (62 days) and ARC (73 days). Respective growth rates between birth and weaning (P < 0.001) for CCC, ARH and ARC calves were 0.955, 0.873 and 0.755 ± 0.028 kg/day. Although there was a growth check among CCC calves during the weaning period, there were no post-weaning differences in growth rate among the groups. Conclusions Increasing milk allowance had the benefit of improving calf pre-weaning growth rate, giving the option of weaning calves either earlier or when heavier. However, milk yield losses under suckling systems may be too high to warrant the elevated pre-weaning growth of calves. Implications The costs–benefits of high milk allocation or suckling systems need to be ascertained over the lifetime of the animals to assess long-term survival and productivity outcomes.

show abstract

Performance in dairy cows and calves with or without cow-calf contact on pasture

Cited by 2 publications

References 55 publications

Cow-calf contact: a single-herd observational study of AMS yield during the first 100 days in milk

Cow-calf contact: a single-herd observational study of AMS yield during the first 100 days in milk

Comparison of suckling and artificial rearing on calf growth and milk requirements in pastoral dairy systems

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About