Does calf age at pairing have effect on the performance and health?

MALÁ, Gabriela, NOVÁK, Pavel, JIROUTOVÁ, Pavlína, KNÍŽEK, Josef, NEJEDLÁ, Eliška and PROCHÁZKA, David. Does calf age at pairing have effect on the performance and health?. Náš chov, 2021, vol. 81(2), p. 55-58. ISSN 0027-8068.
Year2021
CathegoryPublication in specialized journals
Internal link21012.pdf
Abstract

The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of age of pairing on the performance and welfare of calves. We analysed the 24-hour cycles of the basic daily activities of 14 calves housed in pairs from the 8th day of age and 12 calves housed in pairs from the 31st day of age on one farm during two running of the milk nutrition period. The observed qualitative parameters (behaviour, health) were evaluated by nonparametric tests, quantitative parameters (live weight, gain weight, starter consumption) using the F-test and the paired t-test in the TIBCO Statistica software. The results show that calves housed in pairs from the 8th day of age more often looked for close contact with the other calf during lying and resting (by +1.83 %). At the same time, these calves had a significantly higher (p < 0.01) frequency of licking the surfaces of pens, runs and buckets (by +1.13%). Calves housed in pairs from the 8th day achieved non-significantly higher live weight at weaning and weight gain in 60 days of rearing. Calves housed in pairs from the age of 8 spent longer time starter intake (by +0.18%) and had statistically significantly higher (p < 0.01) starter consumption (by +11.7 kg)). Calves housed in pairs from 8 days of age had a non-significantly higher incidence of diarrhoea and respiratory diseases (by +5.7 %).