Effects of rearing from the second week to weaning on calf behavior in maze tests

The aim of the work to observe the behavior of Holstein heifers in maze tests. The heifers were randomly assigned to one of three feeding treatments (sucking by nipple from bucket or automated milk feeder and sucking udder of nursing cows) and to one of two housing systems (individually in hutches or group housing in pens) after having nursed their mothers in the maternity pen for the first week.Groups a and b were fed milk replacer by nipple from bucket or automated milk feeder. Heifers of group a after the first three days, when they were made to drink milk replacer, received 6 kg of milk replacer per day from a bucket with nipple divided into two portions at 12 hour intervals. Heifers of group b after the first three days, when they were made to drink milk replacer, received 6 kg of milk replacer per day divided into four portions at 6-hour intervals from automated milk feeder. Heifers of Group c were kept in the pen with nursing cow from the seventh day on. The number of calves per nursing cow was determined according to their milk yield (6 kg milk per calf). The weaning was carried out for all animals at the age of 8 weeks. Animals of all groups were kept after weaning in common group pens in loose housing with bedding in age-balanced groups. Behavior was evaluated using the maze at the age of 15 weeks. A path from the start to the end marked five barriers which divided the maze into six parts (P1-P6). Each calf was subjected to one training and eight test runs on two consecutive days, always two runs in the morning and two in the afternoon. On the first day, the passage was open on the left side, and on the right side of the maze on the second day (forced exit). If the calf stood without movement in the some part longer than 3 minutes, it was forced gently to move. Every entrance to the P3 part (task A û the first day) or P4 (task B û the second day) was considered a mistake. There were evaluated time of stays in the individual parts of the maze, exploratory behavior, total time of standing in the maze, time of first bucket sniffing, time of first milk drinking and the time of the maze traversing.Results were processed by the statistical package Statistix using descriptive statistics and a one-way analysis of variances (table method). Means were compared using the Tukey test. The results indicate that the feeding and housing during rearing have a significant impact on behavior of calves in the maze. The heifers reared by nursing cows (group c) had the most problems with orientation in the maze. It seems that heifers reared in this way are not suitable for modern rearing technologies There were no significant differences between the behavior of heifers reared in loose housing with a drinking feeder (group b) and heifers from individual hutches drinking through a sucking nipple from the bucket (group a). Both these groups meet the requirements of the modern technology of dairy farming. (animals capable of learning, adaptable and tolerant with a good orientation sense).