Lidfors, Lena
- Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Abstract
The aim was to investigate if pair-housing compared to single-housing of dairy calves in outdoor hutches during winter time had any negative effects on health, growth and redirected suckling behaviour. In total 21 calves of Swedish Red and Swedish Holstein cattle were housed in pairs (n=14 calves) or single (n=7) from 10 days to 6 weeks. Each calf was fed 3 l. of whole milk twice per day in teat-buckets. They had ad libitum access to concentrate, silage, hay and water and an empty, clean teat-bucket. Cases of diarrhoea and other diseases were recorded daily and the calves were weighed weekly. Behavioural observations were done on day 14 and then twice per week for each hutch until eight weeks of age. Behavioural observations were made by continuous recording ten minutes before milk feeding and 20 minutes after the calves received their milk in the morning and afternoon. Pair-housed calves had more diarrhoea than single-housed calves (P
Published in
Journal of Veterinary Medicine and Research
2024, volume: 11, number: 3, article number: 1272
SLU Authors
Alvegard, Therese
- Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
- Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Verbeek, Else
- Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
- Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
UKÄ Subject classification
Animal and Dairy Science
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/140040