Occurance and behaviour of milk suckling dairy cows under different housing and calf rearing conditions
2000
Debreceni, O. | Juhas, P. | Strapak, P. (Slovenska Polnohosodarska Univ., Nitra (Slovak Republic). Katedra Specialnej Zootechniky)
The aim of the present work was to study the occurance of milk-suckling dairy cows, reasons for this abnormal behaviour and the differences in behaviour between milk-suckling cows and "normal" ones. Research was carried out on 18 large-scale farms having different housing conditions, situated in the lowland and highland areas of Slovakia. A number of milk-suckling dairy cows ranged from 0.55 to 8.33%. The highest percentage of milk-suckling cows was found in the conditions of loose housing (mean 4.3%), tie stalls with outlets (mean 4.27%), and tie stalls and camp feeding (mean 3.71%). The smallest number was detected in tie stalls conditions, with the mean of 1.48%. The results obtained suggest that there is a relationship between an area per cow and a number of milk-suckling cows with loose housing, and between a method of feeding milk to calves and a number of milk-suckling cows. The lower percentage of milk-suckling cows was found on the farms with a larger area per cow and on those where calves suckled milk from udder for several days after birth. A number of milk-suckling heifers ranged from 3.61 to 14.29%. No significant differences in overalll general activities, an extent of both social activities and comfort activities were found between milk-suckling and "normal" dairy cows. There were statistically significant differences in the distribution of attacks during a day between both types. Whilst mutual attacks of normal dairy cows culminated before feeding, those of milk-suckling dairy cows occured during and immediately after feeding
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