New materials for outdoor individual hutches and welfare

MALÁ, Gabriela, NOVÁK, Pavel. JIROUTOVÁ, Pavlína, KNÍŽEK, Josef, PROCHÁZKA, David and SLAVÍKOVÁ,Martina. New materials for outdoor individual hutches and welfare. Náš chov, 2020, vol. 80(1), p. 54-57. ISSN 0027-8068.
Year2020
CathegoryPublication in specialized journals
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Abstract

The aim of the study was to assess the impact of two different types of individual outdoor hutches for calves in selected bioclimatic, efficiency and welfare indicators during different macro-climatic periods of the year. Observation took place in 6 outdoor individual hutches in one farm during 3 years. Two small hutches are made of solid white polyethylene, have a covered roof ventilation aperture and four medium size hutches are made of extruded non-transparent polyethylene. During the experiment, the mean temperature and relative air humidity in hutches, live weight at birth and weaning, and average daily gain in 41 calves were measured. Obtained data were evaluated by the F-test and the paired t-test (live weight, average daily increment), general linear model (temperature and relative humidity) and Kruskal-Wallis test (temperature-humidity climate) in the program Statistics (StatSoft 9)Based on the observed data, it is possible to conclude that calves housed during the hot summer macroclimatic period in middle extruded polyethylene hutches were not exposed to heat stress compared to calves housed in small polyethylene hutches. However, by human factor failure, calves housed in extruded polyethylene hutches had a lower level of thermal comfort due to improper use of ventilation apertures, but at the same time a higher level of welfare due to greater living comfort and freedom of movement.