Friesian Heifer Calves Research Articles

The development of behaviour the development of social behaviour in calves

Friesian heifer calves, separated from their mothers on the first or second day after birth and reared in groups of three, interacted with one another by sniffing, licking and nuzzling from an early age. Mounting and competitive interactions such as butting and pushing increased in frequency after fifteen weeks but were still much less frequent than licking and sniffing. Calves which had been spatially isolated for eight months were put together in a field with group-reared animals of the same age and showed just as much licking and sniffing as did the group-reared calves. Isolation-reared calves initiated fewer competitive encounters than did group-reared, and were more likely to retreat if attacked or approached. In a rank-order based upon the results of such encounters, group-reared calves were higher than isolation-reared calves both at eight months and in the same herd one year later. This rank-order was not correlated with body weight. Calves which increased or decreased in rank between eight and twenty months showed a correspondingly high or low rate of weight gain. Mean frequency of association in pairs made up of a group-reared and an isolation-reared calf was less than that in pairs of two group-reared or two isolation-reared calves. The most frequent associations were those between two calves from the same rearing group or two isolation-reared calves from adjacent pens. It is concluded that rearing in spatial isolation for eight months has considerable effects on social behaviour and that some of these effects may be detrimental to animal production, especially if animals reared in different ways are mixed and there is competition for food. THE EFFECTS OF PEN CONDITIONS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF CALF BEHAVIOUR A. WATERHOUSE Department of Zoology, University of Reading, Reading (Gt. Britain) ABSTRACT Fifty Friesian heifer calves were reared in individu: .ne of the five followingFifty Friesian heifer calves were reared in individu: .ne of the five following

Effects of feeding different levels of whole milk on growth rates of dairy heifer calves before and after weaning

Abstract Twenty-four Friesian heifer calves were fed one of three levels of whole milk from 4 to 41 days of age and were then weaned over a 14-day period on to a commercial pelleted concentrate mixed with coarsely ground hay. At 71 days of age the calves were grazed on pasture, and concentrate feeding ceased 21 days later. Calves were grazed together until 340 days of age. Average daily live-weight gains of the three treatment groups (0.27, 0.36, and 0.56 kg/day) differed significantly (P 0.05) were observed in the live-weight gains of the treatment groups between days 41 and 92. However, the low live-weight gains of the calves grazing pasture (0.34-0.36 kg/day) indicated that the quantity and/or quality of the feed was limiting growth. No sig...

Rearing of dairy cattle 3. A note on the use of whole milk for calves fed once daily

SUMMARYWhole milk was given once daily to three groups each of 18 Friesian heifer calves and concentrates and hay were also available. Calves in one group received 2·4 kg milk/day and in a second 3·0 kg milk/day and in both of these groups individual calves were weaned when their daily intake of concentrates reached 400 g. In the third group the calves received 3·0 kg milk/day and were weaned after 28 days. Concentrate and hay intakes were not significantly affected by the treatments. Mean growth rate over 56 days increased with increasing quantity of whole milk offered but the differences between treatments were not significant. The performance of calves given whole milk was compared with the performance achieved in previous experiments where milk substitute was given. It was estimated that 1 kg whole milk gave the same live-weight gain as 170 g milk-substitute powder. From this estimate price/cost relationships were determined to indicate when whole milk or milk substitute should be fed to calves.

The artificial rearing of calves and their growth on grass diets:III. The effect of length of period of feeding cold milk Substitute to calves given dride grass in different physical forms

SUMMARYAn experiment was conducted with 63 July-born Friesian heifer calves, purchased at an average age of 10 days and fed cold reconstituted milk substitute for 4, 6 or 8 weeks. The sole ‘solid’ feed was dried grass, chopped and fed loose (a), milled through a 6 mm screen and pelleted (b) or milled through a 3 mm screen and pelleted (c). The experiment was of 3 x 3 factorial design.Calves fed milk for 4, 6 or 8 weeks consumed mean amounts of 20, 42 and 63 kg milk D.M. respectively. During the first 10 weeks the mean daily intake of grass b was significantly greater than that of grasses a or c (0.77, 1.09 and 0.89 kg D.M. for grasses a, b and c respectively) and during weeks 11 to 21 the mean intake of grasses b and c was greater than that of a (3.1, 4.1, 3.7 kg D.M. for grasses a, b and c respectively). Also during weeks 11 to 21 the previous milk feeding had a small but significant effect on the mean daily intake of grass (3.4, 3.7, 3.8 kg D.M./head/day for 4, 6 and 8 weeks of milk feeding respectively).Increasing the period of milk feeding significantly increased the rate of live-weight gain during the first 10 weeks, but subsequently had no effect. During the first 10 weeks and during weeks 11–21, feeding grass b or c significantly increased the rate of liveweight gain compared with grass a but had no effect during a period of uniform feeding, weeks 23–34.During the first 21 weeks feed conversion efficiency was positively related to duration of milk feeding, and was greater for calves given grass b or c than, for thoso given grass a.During weeks 23–34, 36 calves (4 from each original treatment) were fed another uniformly milled and pelleted dried grass. There were no significant differences in voluntary intake, live-weight gain or efficiency of food conversion between the groups of calves during this period. Hence the results of this experiment support previous observations, that when only forage diets are fed the effect of level of early nutrition is still evident in live weights of calves at 6 months of age.

A comparison of entire and ovariectomized beef heifers treated with ethylestrenol

SUMMARYTwenty-eight Hereford cross Friesian heifer calves aged 3 months were allocated in randomized blocks to two main treatments, namely, ovariectomy (spaying), performed by flank laparotomy, and anabolic steroid oral administration (Ethylestrenol). The cattle were tied in stalls and individually fed ad libitum on a ‘barley-beef’ type cereal mixture until slaughtered weighing approximately 340 kg.Ovariectomy reduced overall rate of live-weight gain and food conversion efficiency but differences were not significant. Spayed heifers, however, grew significantly taller than entires. Although fat and bone proportions of the side were increased slightly, carcass grading and composition were not appreciably altered by ovariectomy.Steroid treatment failed to improve performance but lean content of the side was slightly increased. This failure in response may have been due to incorrect dosage.

The artificial rearing of calves and their growth on grass diets: II. The effect of length of period of feeding cold milk substitute to spring–born calves at pasture

SummaryAn experiment was conducted with 32 spring-born Friesian heifer calves, purchased at an average age of 10 days and fed on cold reconstituted milk substitute at pasture.The milk feeding treatments were 4, 4½, 6½ and 9½ weeks in length, during which time calves consumed an average of 17, 23, 43 and 70 kg dry matter/head of milk substitute respectively. The differences between treatment mean live-weight gains for 10½ weeks of the experiment were highly significant (P < O·OOl): the gains were 0·49, 0·43, 0·64 and 0·78 kg/head/day. There was no significant difference between mean rates of live-weight gain after the tenth week so that the overall treatment—mean live-weight gains for the first 23 weeks, which were 0·65, 0·61, 0·72 and 0·74 kg/head/day, strongly reflected the length of the milk-feeding period and demonstrated no significant compensatory growth by the calves.Twenty of these animals were housed for the subsequent winter period and were returned to pasture for a second grazing season. These were artificially inseminated as their individual live weights reached approximately 320 kg. Animals weaned after only 4 weeks of milk feeding took an average of 9½ weeks longer to reach live weights of 320 kg than these receiving milk for 9½ weeks. There were no marked indications of compensatory growth during this extended period of observations.

The protein requirement of the ruminant calf. I. The effect of protein content of the concentrate mixture on the performance of calves weaned at an early age

1. Three experiments are reported, in which a total of seventy-two calves were weaned at 3 or 5 weeks of age and given concentrate mixtures containing either 19·2% or 11·9% crude protein, together with hay and water up to 12 weeks of age.2. The performance of cross-bred calves weaned at 3 weeks of age and given concentrates ad libitum was significantly greater when the high-protein concentrate was used in Experiment 1.3. In Experiment 2, in which Friesian heifer calves were weaned at 5 weeks and given concentrates ad libitum, the level of protein in the concentrates had no significant effect on live-weight gain from birth to 12 weeks. However, there was a tendency for the performance of calves given the concentrate containing 11·9% crude protein to be slightly inferior up to the age of 8 weeks.4. When concentrate intake was restricted to 2 kg./day in Experiment 3, in which Friesian heifer calves were weaned at 5 weeks of age, the live-weight gain was significantly greater when the higher level of protein was given.5. Daily increases in height at withers, heart girth and belly girth tended to be greater in all instances when the concentrate containing 19·2% crude protein was given, but significant differences between treatments occurred only in Experiment 3 for increase in heart girth and belly girth.6. It is apparent from the results that the calf weaned at an early age needs to be given a concentrate containing more than 11·9% crude protein if maximum live-weight gain is to be achieved up to 8 weeks of age. The optimum protein content of the concentrate after this age seems to depend on the level of concentrate feeding. The relationship between energy and protein in determining production is discussed.

The protein requirement of the ruminant calf. II. Further studies on the effect of protein content of the concentrate mixture on the performance of calves weaned at an early age

1. Eighty-four Friesian heifer calves were used in two experiments (Experiments 4 and 5) to study the protein requirement of the ruminant calf to 12 weeks of age. The calves were weaned at 5 weeks of age and given a concentrate containing one of several protein levels, together with hay and water.2. In Experiment 4, the effect of changing the protein content of the concentrates at 8 weeks of age under ad libitum feeding conditions was studied. A concentrate containing 20·6% crude protein (air-dry basis) tended to promote more rapid weight gains in calves to 8 weeks than a similar concentrate with 12·1% crude protein. Following the change in diet at 8 weeks, both groups of calves given the low-protein diet gained weight at similar rates in the period 8–12 weeks, irrespective of the protein level to 8 weeks. During the period 8–12 weeks calves given the high-protein diet, after receiving a low-protein diet to 8 weeks, tended to gain weight at a faster rate than those given the high-protein concentrate throughout. After adjustment for differences between treatment groups in mean concentrate consumption and mean live-weight at 8 weeks, the live-weight gain from 8 to 12 weeks was significantly greater in calves given the high-protein diet after 8 weeks.3. In Experiment 5, a significantly lower growth rate was obtained when concentrate intake was restricted to a maximum of 2 kg./day than when given ad libitum. Calves given the concentrates containing 15·9% or 20·6% crude protein gained weight significantly faster than those given the concentrate containing 12·1% crude protein, at both levels of feeding, after live-weight gain was adjusted for differences between treatment groups in mean food consumption and live-weight at 1 week.4. It is concluded that no advantage is obtained by giving a concentrate containing more than 15·9% protein to Friesian heifer calves weaned at 5 weeks of age. The results indicate clearly the importance of an adequate supply of energy in the diet of the ruminant calf if maximum live-weight gain is to be achieved.

The growth rate of heifers in a dairy herd

Growth rates of Shorthorn and Friesian heifer calves from 0 to 6 months of age were studied from live-weight data collected over a 10-year period.Friesian calves were heavier than Shorthorn. Male calves were heavier than female. Calves born to the first pregnancy were smaller than those born to later ones. Gestation length was 5 days shorter for Friesian than for Shorthorn cows. It tended to be slightly shorter for female than for male calves. Non-foetal loss of weight at calving was greater with male than with female calves.High-level feeding before calving was associated with heavier calves but the effect was not statistically significant.Calf birth weight increased by 0·026 lb./lb. increase in post-calving live weight of the dam and by 0·564 lb./day extension of the gestation period.Growth rate accelerated from birth to 3–4 months of age and then declined slightly. Autumn-born calves grew faster in the first 90 days than springborn calves. Age of dam and level of feeding before calving had no effect on rate of growth of the calf.For both breeds there were significant negative correlations between birth weight and rate of gain in the first month after birth.