The effects of full-time, part-time and no cow-calf contact on calf health, behaviour, growth and labour in pasture-based dairy systems

Abstract

Preventing cow-calf contact in rearing systems has been scrutinised. This descriptive study investigated the effects of full-time contact outdoors on pasture (FT-O), part-time contact indoors (PT-I), or no contact indoors (NC-I) on calf health, behaviour, growth and labour in a pasture-based dairy system. Cows (n = 55) were balanced pre-calving on parity (16 primiparous and 39 multiparous), milk production (35 weeks) of previous lactation (4497 ± 193.8 kg), breed and predicted calving date. Contact pairs bonded for 48 h, whereas NC-I calves were separated from cows immediately, and remained in individual pens for three days before grouping. The FT-O pairs moved outdoors at 5 ± 3.3 days, only separated from cows for milking twice daily. Part-time cows were milked once-a-day (8:00) and grazed outdoors post-milking, returning indoors to calves from 15:00–8:00 the following morning. The NC-I calves were assigned to a feeding plan offering up to 9.5 L/day of milk replacer via automatic feeder. All calves had Ad libitum access to water, concentrates and forage. For NC-I calves, weaning started at 48 days, taking 12 days, for contact calves it started at 58 days, taking seven days. From birth to three weeks post-weaning, animal health and labour were evaluated twice-weekly, weight and linear body measurements were recorded weekly and behaviour was recorded weekly (daily during weaning). Following this, weighing was carried out fortnightly. Faecal related issues were seen most often in contact calves than NC-I calves. The PT-I calves also experienced eye issues more often than NC-I and FT-O calves. Illness resulted in 26 % of FT-O calves being removed from experiment (none removed from NC-I and PT-I). The PT-I calves expressed the most abnormal behaviours throughout weaning. Contact calves vocalised more at weaning than NC-I (7.8 % vs 1.5 % of time). The NC-I calves weighed less at 28 (49.0 vs 55.5 kg), 56 (69.0 vs 82.1 kg), 70 (79.0 vs 87.1 kg) and 77 (81.8 vs 90.8 kg) days than FT-O and PT-I calves. Labour associated with calving was greater for the NC-I system (00:15:56 ± 00:00:35) than contact systems (00:01:39 ± 00:00:35). Weekly labour was greater for the FT-O system (00:01:29 ± 00:00:05) than NC-I and PT-I systems (00:00:44 ± 00:00:05), which were similar. Weaning labour was negligible for NC-I calves (computerised feeder), but 00:02:08 ± 00:00:09 for contact systems, which were similar. To conclude, pre-weaning calf growth and reduced labour at calving as a result of cow-calf contact is challenged by calf health and human welfare (related to daily labour) in the FT-O system and by calf behaviour and stunted post-weaning growth in the PT-I system. Thus, cow-calf contact in pasture-based dairy systems require further research to safeguard calf and human welfare.