CalfAmmWell

A concept for calf rearing on large dairy cow farms that promotes animal welfare (KalbAmmWohl)

Animal-friendly husbandry conditions are increasingly being demanded by a broad social consensus. Many people are unaware of the practice of separating dairy calves from their mothers, usually within the first few hours after birth. When they are informed about it, the majority of them reject this practice. Various reasons, such as calf morbidity, labor costs and, last but not least, animal welfare, are prompting an increasing number of farm managers to practice cow-bonded calf rearing. However, cow-based calf rearing also poses a number of challenges and must be adapted to the respective farm conditions. For very large farms in particular, it can be difficult in terms of space and logistics to rear calves on their mothers and milk the cows at the same time. In this case, nurse-bound rearing, in which the nurse cows are not milked additionally during the suckling phase, can be a solution. However, the risks of suckler cow rearing are uneven feeding of the calves and increased udder stress on the cows. In order to make cow-based calf rearing more widespread in agricultural practice, it is necessary to find solutions for known problem areas of cow-based calf rearing that have proven themselves in practice. They can then be adopted and further developed by other farms with regard to certain components or in the overall concept. The rapidly increasing farm sizes in dairy cow husbandry must also be taken into account here. To date, there are few tried and tested concepts, particularly for very large farms. The planned project therefore aims to develop a concept specifically for suckler calf rearing on a large dairy cow farm that ensures a high level of well-being and health, especially for the calves, and that also provides a basis for recommendations for other farms.