246 Results Found

The first few months of life are of great importance to the longevity and lifetime performance of dairy cows. The nutrition, environment and healthcare management of heifer calves must be sufficient to minimise exposure to stress and disease and enab...

Dairy production relies predominantly on a few, selectively bred, high-yielding dairy breeds, resulting in a surplus of low-value male offspring. This situation leads to a conflict between a growing demand for milk and low appreciation for dairy calv...

This study aimed to describe management practices that may compromise the welfare of unweaned dairy calves on 29 dairy farms in Chile, and identify factors associated with diarrhea and respiratory disease (n = 700 calves). Evaluations were divided in...

Requirements for animal and dairy products are increasing gradually in emerging economic bodies. However, it is critical and challenging to maintain the health and welfare of the increasing population of dairy cattle, especially the dairy calf (up to...

Dairy calves must be fed appropriately to meet their nutritional needs, supporting optimal growth and development to achieve the recommended target age at first calving (AFC) of 24 months. Traditional restricted milk feeding practices suppress growth...

After birth, the immune system is challenged by numerous elements of the extrauterine environment, reflected in fluctuations of inflammatory markers. The concentrations of these markers in the first month of life are associated with the future perfor...

Among factors that can affect calf health, microbial quality of the pen air is poorly studied. In 25 Italian dairy farms, data concerning air quality in the calf pens, hygiene of pens and equipment, microclimatic conditions, calf health and managemen...

Despite an abundance of available research, calf mortality persists as a multifaceted phenomenon that presents ongoing challenges in practical management. This historical single-cohort study was conducted to provide a more comprehensive layer of know...

Monitoring 100-day in-calf rate (100DICR) is an integral part of the assessment of reproductive performance in year-round calving dairy herds. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of month on 100DICR in year-round calving herds i...

It is unknown whether calf rearing facilities in the Republic of Ireland are fit for purpose, or if facilities sufficiently consider calf and farmer welfare. The aim of this study was to review current calf housing facilities and management practices...

The objective of this case-control study was to determine if feeding behavior data collected from an automated milk feeder (AMF) could be used to predict neonatal calf diarrhea (NCD) in the days surrounding diagnosis in pre-weaned group housed dairy...

The objective of this narrative review is to provide a systematic framework for veterinarians to investigate dairy calf health, focusing on critical control points and key performance indicators (KPIs) to address morbidity and mortality challenges in...

Social housing for dairy calves has a range of benefits for social development, yet there is limited understanding of how social bonds form early in life. We characterized effects of early life social contact on the development of social preference f...

Previous research has indicated that preweaned dairy calves reared in pairs compared with individually have improved performance and indicators of animal welfare. One hundred and thirty Holstein female calves completed the trial, with eighty-five bei...

The objective was to evaluate the effects of good handling practices on dairy calf welfare. Forty-eight crossbred dairy calves were assigned to two treatments: conventional handling (CH): calves kept in individual pens, fed milk replacer in buckets w...

This study assessed the impact of different calf rearing systems on calf health, behavior, meat quality, and oxidative stability. The study involved two groups of bull calves: conventionally penned calves (control, fed with use of automatic feeders)...

Surplus calves, which consist predominately of male calves born on dairy farms, are an underrecognized source of antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) pathogens. Current production systems for surplus calves have important risk factors for the dissemination...

Recording of body weights of dairy calves may assist producers in monitoring the health status of calves and making feed-related management decisions. Traditional methods of weighing calves can be time-consuming and labor-intensive. The objective of...

This study aimed to investigate the effect of maternal stocking density during late pregnancy (approximately 60 ± 4 days before calving) on offspring performance during the pre-weaning period. Forty-five dairy calves were born to cows that wen...

Pre-weaned dairy calves are very susceptible to disease in the first months of life due to having a naïve immune system and because of the numerous physiological stressors they face. Hygiene management is a key element in minimizing enteric dise...

In all bovine production systems, neonatal calf diarrhea remains worldwide an important issue of economic losses and animal welfare. The aim of the present study was to identify risk factors for neonatal calf diarrhea as a herd health problem on Bava...

The study objective was to compare the ability of Brix values and the D2Dx immunity test to predict the mortality risk of calves under 30 days of age. Heifer calves at 2–3 days of age were enrolled from two farms: Farm A, which has a low calf m...

A number of studies have reported that there is a high prevalence of antimicrobial-resistant faecal bacteria excreted by dairy calves. Although faecal shedding is influenced by a variety of factors, such as the environment and calf age, feeding milk...

Poor bovine neonatal survival rates are an international animal welfare issue. The key modifiable risk factors associated with such loss are age at first calving in primiparae, calf breed, gender and gestation length and calving management. The prima...

Antimicrobial use (AMU) is the major driver of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) among bacteria in dairy herds. There have been numerous studies on AMU and AMR in dairy cows; however, studies on AMU and AMR in dairy calves are limited. A comprehensive o...

Monitoring calf body weight (BW) before weaning is essential for assessing growth, feed efficiency, health, and weaning readiness. However, labor, time, and facility constraints limit BW collection. Additionally, Holstein calf coat patterns complicat...

Given the high incidence of calf diarrhea and the limited data on pathogenic and non-infectious factors in a large-scale dairy farm in Wuwei City, this study aims to investigate the pathogens associated with summer calf diarrhea and the non-infectiou...

The objectives of the study were to describe colostrum management on Austrian dairy farms and to explore differences between regions (alpine/flatlands), organic and conventional producing farms, and full-time or part-time operated farms. An online su...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the proportion of twins carried to term and the sex ratio of twin calves at birth in Holstein-Friesian dairy cattle kept on commercial farms in Devon and Cornwall, England. Ten farms were used in the study...

The aim of this article is to show the relationship between external thermal conditions and the quality of the indoor environment on a dairy farm during the summer. The measurements were carried out on a large dairy farm of Holstein cattle situated i...

Calf morbidity and mortality rates are often high in dairy herds, raising animal welfare concerns and negatively affecting farm economic efficiency and future performance. Disease prevention is critical to maintain calves in good health, but interven...

Feeding increased volumes of milk in the preweaning phase has been shown to improve growth, morbidity and mortality rates in calves (Bos Taurus). This experiment enlisted 20 Holstein-Friesian dairy replacement calves from birth until weaning (at 10 w...

Production of beef-cross-dairy calves from dairy cows increases the value of non-replacement calves born to the dairy herd. The use of beef-breed sires may impact on calf birth weight, gestation length and pre-weaning growth rate of calves, which in...

Prepartum vaccinations against neonatal calf diarrhea pathogens are administered in late pregnancy to provide passive immunity to calves through protective colostral antibodies. Potential non-specific effects of the vaccine on maternal innate immune...

In Italy most dairy cows produce milk for cheese manufacture and are farmed in intensive systems, with free stall barns, milking parlor or robotic milking, total mixed ration and no (or limited) access to pasture. The main objective for farmers is to...

Our study compared the behavior of prepartum dairy cows that either remained in an outdoor paddock until calving (OP) during winter or were moved to an indoor maternity pen either early (EM) or late (LM) relative to calving. Forty-two multiparous Hol...

Calf growth rate in relation to future milk production has been thoroughly studied; however, the observation of growth arrest lines in bones from heifers with humeral fractures has highlighted the need to understand bone growth in relation to calf gr...

The weaning of dairy calves is a significant stressor which can impact on calf performance and welfare. However, many traditional methods of assessing the effects of stressors can be invasive and impractical for farmers. This study aimed to use a com...

Butyrate promotes rumen epithelium growth and function; however, the effect of prepartum butyrate supplementation on dairy cow productivity, health and their offspring has not been extensively studied. Furthermore, no studies have investigated the ef...

This study investigates public perceptions in Texas regarding two common calf disbudding methods used in dairy farming: caustic paste and hot iron. With growing consumer interest in humane animal treatment, understanding the preferences for these met...

Microbiota plays a critical role in the overall growth performance and health status of dairy cows, especially during their early life. Several studies have reported that fecal microbiome of neonatal calves is shifted by various factors such as diarr...

One of the pillars of Johne’s disease control is to break the cycle of transmission from infectious adult animals to young susceptible animals. Many control programmes utilise a risk assessment and management plan (RAMP) to identify specific ri...

Our objective was to investigate the association of bovine respiratory disease (BRD) occurring within the first 56 days of life with blood cell counts and the circulating concentration of metabolites, minerals, and acute phase proteins throughout the...

The microbiome of dairy calves undergoes extensive change due to various forces during the first weeks of life. Importantly, diseases such as bovine respiratory disease (BRD) and calf diarrhea can have profound impacts on the early-life microbiome. T...

Dairy heifer calves experience high levels of contagious disease during their preweaning period, which may result in poor welfare, reduced performance or mortality. We determined risk factors for disease in a cohort study of 492 heifers recruited fro...

Currently, in dairy farming, there is growing concern for the welfare of calves during the critical period between the separation from their dams and weaning. During weaning, rationed feeding is a practice used to improve feed efficiency and control...

Two hundred and forty-three clinically healthy Holstein calves from eight commercial dairy farms were used to: (a) describe the evolutionary course of ruminal VFA concentration and pH during the peri-weaning period and (b) assess management factors a...

In Uruguay, the mortality of dairy calves due to infectious diseases is high. Escherichia coli is a natural inhabitant of the intestinal microbiota, but can cause several infections. The aim of the work was to characterize E. coli isolates from intes...

This study aimed to systematically review the literature of the last 24 years to determine the influence of dam heat stress, nutrition, body condition, vaccination, parity, and twin pregnancy on calf morbidity and mortality. The systematic search was...

Disbudding is a common practice on dairy farms, with the hot iron method (HID) widely used, though it causes considerable pain if no analgesia is provided. This study included two experiments. In Experiment 1, an alternative method using policresulen...