Behavioural effects of separating the dairy calf immediately or 4 days post-partum

Abstract

This study investigated the behavioural effects of separating the dairy calf from its mother at birth or after 4 days and how the mother-young attachment and suckling behaviour developed during these 4 days post partum (p.p.). Observations were made during 2 h sampling sessions per day on 33 Swedish Red and White and 6 Swedish Friesian mother young pairs. They were either kept together during 96 h (treatment T n = 24) in a calving pen (11 m 2) or separated immediately p.p. (treatment S n = 15) with the cow kept in the calving pen and the calf placed in a single crate (1.2 m 2) at a distance of 5 m from the cow and in sight of each other. Calves on treatment T were standing earlier p.p. than calves on treatment S (60 vs. 201 min p.p., P ≤ 0.05). However, seven of these calves (32%) did not suckle successfully within 4 h. p.p. Mean duration until placenta expulsion was 245 min and 77% of the cows showed placentophagia, but there were no effects of treatment. During the 2 h p.p. cows on treatment T vocalised more often ( P ≤ 0.001), were lying less ( P ≤ 0.001), were less inactive ( P ≤ 0.05) and performed less oral behaviour ( P ≤ 0.01) than cows on treatment S. Calves on treatment T vocalised less often during all 4 days p.p. ( P ≤ 0.001) and licked themselves less often during the second, third and fourth day p.p. ( P ≤ 0.05) than calves on treatment S. When the calf was separated at 96 h, cows on treatment T vocalised more often ( P ≤ 0.001), were lying less ( P ≤ 0.05) and ruminated less ( P ≤ 0.01) than did cows on treatment S. Calves on treatment T were lying less ( P ≤ 0.01) and performed more oral behaviour ( P ≤ 0.05) after separation than did calves on treatment S. Cows on treatment T were within 1 m of the calf during most observations, but this decreased during the 4 days p.p. ( P ≤ 0.01). Maternal sniffing and licking was most common during the first 2 h p.p., and decreased during the 4 days ( P ≤ 0.0001). Total suckling time per 24 h decreased during the first 4 days ( P ≤ 0.01), but suckling frequency and bout duration did not change over the 4 days. The conclusion from this study is that both cow and calf are stimulated to higher activity immediately post partum when kept together, but that separation after 4 days has an effect on some behaviours of both cows and calves.