Abstract
We investigated and compared the effects of low and high concentrate supplementation in terms of animal welfare, health and reproductive performance in two different dairy cow breeds on small-scale mountain farms. 64 South Tyrolean dairy farms were evaluated using an on-farm assessment for animal-based and resource-based welfare indicators, data from test day records, and a questionnaire for the farmer. Farms were divided into four groups: low input Tyrolean Grey (L-TG), low input Brown Swiss (L-BS), high input Tyrolean Grey (H-TG) and high input Brown Swiss (H-BS). Effects of intensity level, breed and their interaction were calculated and analyzed statistically. The predominant husbandry system across all groups was tie-stall. The average energy-corrected milk yield increased with increasing concentrate level, with L-TG showing the lowest and H-BS showing the highest milk yield. Age at first calving was lowest in H-BS when compared to all other systems, while numbers of lactations were higher in L-TG compared to H-BS. Feed efficiency (percentage of milk out of roughage) was significantly higher in L-TG and L-BS when compared to H-TG and H-BS. L-BS showed the poorest results for most of the welfare indicators such as lean cows, lesions and percentage of dirty animals. In conclusion, a higher concentrate level in diets does not lead automatically to lower animal welfare for dairy cows in alpine regions. Indeed, keeping high yielding breeds in extensive systems seems to be challenging. The dual-purpose breed TG showed some clear advantages in that calving interval was lower and the number of lactations greater.
Highlights
We investigated and compared the effects of low and high concentrate supplementation in terms of animal welfare, health and reproductive performance in two different dairy cow breeds on small-scale mountain farms. 64 South Tyrolean dairy farms were evaluated using an on-farm assessment for animal-based and resource-based welfare indicators, data from test day records, and a questionnaire for the farmer
Farms were divided into four groups: low input Tyrolean Grey (L-TG), low input Brown Swiss (L-BS), high input Tyrolean Grey (H-TG) and high input Brown Swiss (H-BS)
Age at first calving was lowest in H-BS when compared to all other systems, while numbers of lactations were higher in L-TG compared to H-BS
Summary
We investigated and compared the effects of low and high concentrate supplementation in terms of animal welfare, health and reproductive performance in two different dairy cow breeds on small-scale mountain farms. 64 South Tyrolean dairy farms were evaluated using an on-farm assessment for animal-based and resource-based welfare indicators, data from test day records, and a questionnaire for the farmer. We investigated and compared the effects of low and high concentrate supplementation in terms of animal welfare, health and reproductive performance in two different dairy cow breeds on small-scale mountain farms. Intensification in dairy systems is complex and mainly associated with higher milk yields, as well as changes in farm size and stocking density (Clay et al, 2020). In mountain areas, the opportunity to change farm size and stocking density are very limited and increasing the total amount of milk production per cow and farm is usually only possible by using higher-yielding breeds or increasing concentrate levels. The combination of the level of concentrate feed and the used breed is rarely considered when studying the welfare of dairy cows. The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of high v. low concentrate feeding as well as the influence of breed (lower yielding Tyrolean Grey v. higher yielding Brown Swiss) and their interactions on animal- and resource-based welfare indicators as well as health and reproduction parameters
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