Early pair housing increases solid feed intake and weight gains in dairy calves

J. H.C. Costa; R. K. Meagher; M. A.G. von Keyserlingk; D. M. Weary

doi:10.3168/jds.2015-9395

Early pair housing increases solid feed intake and weight gains in dairy calves

J. H.C. Costa
, R. K. Meagher
, M. A.G. von Keyserlingk
, D. M. Weary

Animal and Food Sciences

Producción científica: Article › revisión exhaustiva

105 Citas (Scopus)

Resumen

Dairy calves have traditionally been kept in individual pens throughout the milk-feeding period. Social rearing is associated with increased solid feed intake and, hence, higher weight gains before and after weaning. Little is known about the effect of the age at which social housing begins. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of early versus late pairing on feeding behavior and weight gain before and after weaning. Holstein bull calves were reared individually (n. =. 8 calves) or paired with another calf at 6. ±. 3 d (n. =. 8 pairs) or 43. ±. 3 d of age (n. =. 8 pairs). All calves were fed 8 L of milk/d for 4 wk, 6 L/d from 4 to 7 wk, and then milk was reduced by 20%/d until calves were completely weaned at 8 wk of age. Calves were provided ad libitumaccess to calf starter and a total mixed ration (TMR). Body weight and feed intake were measured weekly from 3 to 10 wk of age.Intake of calf starter was significantly higher for the early-paired calves than for individually reared and late-paired calves throughout the experimental period. At 10 wk of age, starter dry matter intake averaged 2.20. ±. 0.22, 1.09. ±. 0.25, and 1.26. ±. 0.33. kg/d for early-paired, late-paired, and individually housed calves, respectively. Intake of TMR did not differ among treatments, TMR dry matter intake averaged 3.27. ±. 0.72, 3.08. ±. 0.46, and 2.89. ±. 0.54. kg/d for the same 3 treatments. Calves in the early paired treatment also showed significantly higher average daily gain over the experimental period (0.89. ±. 0.04 vs. 0.76. ±. 0.04 and 0.73. ±. 0.04. kg/d for the early-paired, individual, and late-paired calves, respectively). These results indicate that social housing soon after birth can increase weight gains and intake of solid feed.

Idioma original	English
Páginas (desde-hasta)	6381-6386
Número de páginas	6
Publicación	Journal of Dairy Science
Volumen	98
N.º	9
DOI	https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2015-9395
Estado	Published - sept 1 2015

Nota bibliográfica

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 American Dairy Science Association.

Financiación

We thank the staff and students of the University of British Columbia (UBC) Dairy Education and Research Centre who helped in this experiment, especially Eraldo Drago Filho, Venessa Wong, and Alan Makarewicz for their help with data collection. Joao H.C. Costa is supported by CNPq(The Brazilian National Councilfor Scientific and Technological Development, Brasilia, Brazil). This research was funded by a Discovery Grant to D. M. Weary from Canada\u2019s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC, Ottawa, Canada). General funding for UBC\u2019s Animal Welfare Program comes from an NSERC Industrial Research Chair with industry contributions from the Dairy Farmers of Canada (Ottawa, ON, Canada), British Columbia Dairy Association (Burnaby, BC Canada), Westgen Endowment Fund (Milner, BC, Canada), Intervet Canada Corporation (Kirkland, QC, Canada), Novus International Inc. (Oakville, ON, Canada), Zoetis (Kirkland, QC, Canada), BC Cattle Industry Development Fund (Kamloops, BC, Canada), Alberta Milk (Edmonton, AB, Canada), Valacta (St. Anne-de-Bellevue, QC, Canada), and CanWest DHI (Guelph, ON, Canada).

Financiadores
Brazilian National Councilfor Scientific and Technological Development
Dairy Farmers of Canada (Ottawa, ON, Canada), British Columbia Dairy Association
Westgen Endowment Fund
Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico
ON, Canada), Zoetis
Novus International
Intervet Canada Corporation
CanWest DHI

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Food Science
Animal Science and Zoology
Genetics

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title = "Early pair housing increases solid feed intake and weight gains in dairy calves",

abstract = "Dairy calves have traditionally been kept in individual pens throughout the milk-feeding period. Social rearing is associated with increased solid feed intake and, hence, higher weight gains before and after weaning. Little is known about the effect of the age at which social housing begins. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of early versus late pairing on feeding behavior and weight gain before and after weaning. Holstein bull calves were reared individually (n. =. 8 calves) or paired with another calf at 6. ±. 3 d (n. =. 8 pairs) or 43. ±. 3 d of age (n. =. 8 pairs). All calves were fed 8 L of milk/d for 4 wk, 6 L/d from 4 to 7 wk, and then milk was reduced by 20\%/d until calves were completely weaned at 8 wk of age. Calves were provided ad libitumaccess to calf starter and a total mixed ration (TMR). Body weight and feed intake were measured weekly from 3 to 10 wk of age.Intake of calf starter was significantly higher for the early-paired calves than for individually reared and late-paired calves throughout the experimental period. At 10 wk of age, starter dry matter intake averaged 2.20. ±. 0.22, 1.09. ±. 0.25, and 1.26. ±. 0.33. kg/d for early-paired, late-paired, and individually housed calves, respectively. Intake of TMR did not differ among treatments, TMR dry matter intake averaged 3.27. ±. 0.72, 3.08. ±. 0.46, and 2.89. ±. 0.54. kg/d for the same 3 treatments. Calves in the early paired treatment also showed significantly higher average daily gain over the experimental period (0.89. ±. 0.04 vs. 0.76. ±. 0.04 and 0.73. ±. 0.04. kg/d for the early-paired, individual, and late-paired calves, respectively). These results indicate that social housing soon after birth can increase weight gains and intake of solid feed.",

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AU - Weary, D. M.

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AB - Dairy calves have traditionally been kept in individual pens throughout the milk-feeding period. Social rearing is associated with increased solid feed intake and, hence, higher weight gains before and after weaning. Little is known about the effect of the age at which social housing begins. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of early versus late pairing on feeding behavior and weight gain before and after weaning. Holstein bull calves were reared individually (n. =. 8 calves) or paired with another calf at 6. ±. 3 d (n. =. 8 pairs) or 43. ±. 3 d of age (n. =. 8 pairs). All calves were fed 8 L of milk/d for 4 wk, 6 L/d from 4 to 7 wk, and then milk was reduced by 20%/d until calves were completely weaned at 8 wk of age. Calves were provided ad libitumaccess to calf starter and a total mixed ration (TMR). Body weight and feed intake were measured weekly from 3 to 10 wk of age.Intake of calf starter was significantly higher for the early-paired calves than for individually reared and late-paired calves throughout the experimental period. At 10 wk of age, starter dry matter intake averaged 2.20. ±. 0.22, 1.09. ±. 0.25, and 1.26. ±. 0.33. kg/d for early-paired, late-paired, and individually housed calves, respectively. Intake of TMR did not differ among treatments, TMR dry matter intake averaged 3.27. ±. 0.72, 3.08. ±. 0.46, and 2.89. ±. 0.54. kg/d for the same 3 treatments. Calves in the early paired treatment also showed significantly higher average daily gain over the experimental period (0.89. ±. 0.04 vs. 0.76. ±. 0.04 and 0.73. ±. 0.04. kg/d for the early-paired, individual, and late-paired calves, respectively). These results indicate that social housing soon after birth can increase weight gains and intake of solid feed.

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KW - Weaning

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Early pair housing increases solid feed intake and weight gains in dairy calves

Resumen

Nota bibliográfica

Financiación

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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