TY - JOUR
T1 - Implementation of management recommendations in unweaned dairy calves in western Germany and associated challenges
AU - Hayer, Jason J.
AU - Nysar, Dorit
AU - Heinemann, Céline
AU - Leubner, Caroline D.
AU - Steinhoff-Wagner, Julia
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 American Dairy Science Association
PY - 2021/6
Y1 - 2021/6
N2 - To improve the welfare of livestock, it is important to assess management practices on farms and to identify areas where current scientific recommendations are rarely implemented. Differences in the implementation of recommendations might be explained by the individual farm as well as the characteristics of survey respondents and their attitude toward animal welfare. Hence, the aim of this study was to assess dairy calf management practices, compare them with current scientific recommendations, and to explore factors that influence implementation of the recommended management practices. A 1.5-h interview was performed with stockpersons on 42 dairy farms (mean herd size ± SD = 149.9 ± 16.6 cows) distributed across western Germany in 2018 to 2019. We observed that the management of unweaned calves varied greatly from farm to farm in aspects such as milk-feeding protocols; timing of grouping and disbudding; and access to water, roughage, and concentrate. Major deviations from management recommendations were (1) cleaning calving pen only by removal of bedding without a following disinfection before restocking on 23.8% farms, cleaning of teat buckets without detergents and disinfection (23.8 and 11.9% of farms, respectively), and failure to disinfect navels (29.3% of farms); (2) separating calf and dam after only 5 to 8 h postpartum for calving at night in 97.6% farms and unchecked colostrum quality by 23.8% of survey respondents; (3) feeding waste milk by 72.4% of the farms surveyed; and (4) removing supernumerary teats and disbudding without local anesthesia (90 and 80% farms surveyed, respectively). The number of implemented recommendations on the farms surveyed correlated with who was responsible for calf rearing, and whether prioritizing animal welfare was considered important by the respondents. This study indicated that limitations of individual housing systems, time management, the stockperson's knowledge, and the stockperson's ability to relate to animals posed challenges in implementation of the recommendations. Further research on challenges in calf management and how to overcome them would be helpful to improve calves' welfare in current husbandry systems.
AB - To improve the welfare of livestock, it is important to assess management practices on farms and to identify areas where current scientific recommendations are rarely implemented. Differences in the implementation of recommendations might be explained by the individual farm as well as the characteristics of survey respondents and their attitude toward animal welfare. Hence, the aim of this study was to assess dairy calf management practices, compare them with current scientific recommendations, and to explore factors that influence implementation of the recommended management practices. A 1.5-h interview was performed with stockpersons on 42 dairy farms (mean herd size ± SD = 149.9 ± 16.6 cows) distributed across western Germany in 2018 to 2019. We observed that the management of unweaned calves varied greatly from farm to farm in aspects such as milk-feeding protocols; timing of grouping and disbudding; and access to water, roughage, and concentrate. Major deviations from management recommendations were (1) cleaning calving pen only by removal of bedding without a following disinfection before restocking on 23.8% farms, cleaning of teat buckets without detergents and disinfection (23.8 and 11.9% of farms, respectively), and failure to disinfect navels (29.3% of farms); (2) separating calf and dam after only 5 to 8 h postpartum for calving at night in 97.6% farms and unchecked colostrum quality by 23.8% of survey respondents; (3) feeding waste milk by 72.4% of the farms surveyed; and (4) removing supernumerary teats and disbudding without local anesthesia (90 and 80% farms surveyed, respectively). The number of implemented recommendations on the farms surveyed correlated with who was responsible for calf rearing, and whether prioritizing animal welfare was considered important by the respondents. This study indicated that limitations of individual housing systems, time management, the stockperson's knowledge, and the stockperson's ability to relate to animals posed challenges in implementation of the recommendations. Further research on challenges in calf management and how to overcome them would be helpful to improve calves' welfare in current husbandry systems.
KW - animal welfare
KW - farm management
KW - stockperson attitude
KW - survey
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85102455941&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3168/jds.2020-19829
DO - 10.3168/jds.2020-19829
M3 - Article
C2 - 33715854
AN - SCOPUS:85102455941
SN - 0022-0302
VL - 104
SP - 7039
EP - 7055
JO - Journal of Dairy Science
JF - Journal of Dairy Science
IS - 6
ER -