Abstract
Training cattle to avoid electric fences before turnout to grazing reduces the risk of the animals breaking out from their paddock. We investigated the time needed for dairy bull calves to learn to avoid a light-built electric fence. Nineteen dairy bull calves were trained to an electric fence in a training yard during seven days. The number of electric shocks the animals received from the training fence was recorded continuously. After the training period, the calves were turned to pasture. Nine of the animals were also grazed the following summer as yearlings, and observed before turnout in a smaller enclosure. The calves got more shocks from the fence during training hour 1 than during any of the following seven hours. The number of shocks the calves received from the fence also declined from training day 1 to 2 and from training day 3 to 4. The results indicate that the dairy bull calves learned to avoid an electric fence quickly, even within an hour from release into the training yard. A simple training procedure was sufficient to ensure that the animals could be grazed in and would avoid a light-built electric fencing system as calves and, even after a winter-housing period, as bulls.;
Highlights
In Finland, most cows and heifers are housed indoors during winter and grazed during summer months.Cow paddocks are usually enclosed with costeffective, light-built electric fences that are taken down or moved according to the prevailing demand
Martiskainen, P. et al Training dairy bull calves to stay within electric fences indoors throughout the year
Haskell et al 2006, Hernandez-Mendo et al 2007), grazing enables the utilisation of the cheap pasture forage and, especially in beef production, could reduce the workload in animal management
Summary
In Finland, most cows and heifers are housed indoors during winter and grazed during summer months.Cow paddocks are usually enclosed with costeffective, light-built electric fences that are taken down or moved according to the prevailing demand. In Finland, most cows and heifers are housed indoors during winter and grazed during summer months. Dairy bulls, which comprise the majority of Finnish beef production, are traditionally reared. Martiskainen, P. et al Training dairy bull calves to stay within electric fences indoors throughout the year. Often farmers are of the opinion that fencing bulls in would require much heavier, more expensive and laborious constructions than cows to prevent the animals from breaking out of their paddocks. Haskell et al 2006, Hernandez-Mendo et al 2007), grazing enables the utilisation of the cheap pasture forage and, especially in beef production, could reduce the workload in animal management. Training heifers and steers to electric fences before turnout reduces the risk of the animals escaping from their enclosure (McDonald et al 1981), and this could be assumed to apply to bulls
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