Effects of Different Weaning Age and Housing System on the Growth Performances of Holstein-Friesian Calves

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Effects of Different Weaning Age and Housing System on the Growth Performances of Holstein-Friesian Calves

Early life of the cattle is very critical; they require intensive care and this period is probably the most expensive period in their life. By understanding the principles of growth, nutrition, health and behavior of calves, a farmer can develop successful calf rearing system on his/her farm. In this study, different weaning age (5 weeks and 8 weeks) and housing systems (individual calf hutch, group barn and combination of these two systems) of Holstein-Friesian calves were investigated. The study repeated twice in winter calving and spring calving and totally 36 calves were used in the study. During and after calving, some behaviors of cows and calves were observed in addition to determine the quality of the colostrum. The body weight of the calves at birth and weakly ages up to the weaning were determined, too. After the weaning the measurements were conducted monthly up to the 6 months of calves’ age. The averages of colostrum quality, standing up time of calf from birth, separation of calf from the cow after birth and time of placenta drop from birth were found to be 95.44±3.74 mg/mL, 101.3±10.30 min, 170.56±8.57 min and 345.3±75.60 min, respectively. The average birth weight of calves for the 5th and 8thweeks weaning groups were 43.14±0.90 kg and 41.75±0.91 kg (P>0.05), and the body weight at the 6th month of age were found to be 108.99±2.14 kg and 106.60±1.89 kg (P>0.05), respectively. The average calf birth weight in winter calving is 3.09 kg higher than that of spring calving (P0.05), respectively. In conclusion due to the quality of the colostrum varies significantly, before feeding the calves with colostrum, the quality of it should be determined. Early weaning (5 weeks) of the calves did not have a significant effect on the later performances of the calves. For animal welfare concern, instead of housing the claves in individual calf hutches, the combined system could be an important practice for dairy farms

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