The Effect of Cow-Calf Separation at 8 Weeks on Calf Behaviour, Vocalisations and Daily Liveweight Gain
Newcastle University, Animal Science Honours Project
A group of dairy cows were kept with their calves until weaning and separation at 8 weeks. Though the study stopped early due to Covid-19, it was possible to analyse a number of different parameters:
Calf behaviour and daily liveweight gain
Dam behaviour (measure of welfare and production)
Calf and dam vocalisations (possible measure of distress)
New precision farming technologies, such as Allflex Sensehub collars, were used to monitor behaviour, welfare and production. These collars used are intended to produce activity alerts relating to heat detection and can be used to monitor health and welfare issues.
It was thought that calf and cow bellowing could be measured as an indicator of distress at separation, or an attempt to reunite. It was intended to record the duration of vocalisations to compare distress during separation at 8 weeks with more traditional separation within a few hours/days.
In traditional auditory recordings, vocalisations are manually recorded during specific time slots (meaning behaviours may be missed) or constant video footage is scanned for vocalisations (laborious and time consuming). Using precision technology and specific auditory software, the trial was used as a pilot study to see if precision techniques could be used to count vocalisation occurrences more efficiently.
Oscillogram (above) and spectrogram (below) of calf vocalisations
Calves were noted to have excellent growth rates, health and vigour when kept with their dams up to the point of weaning. Growth rates and health of the calves was observed to be so good by farm staff that they were inclined to keep the animals to finish on farm. The graph below shows growth rates and the dip that followed separation at point B.
Treatment calf DLWG from birth to 2 weeks (A), from 2 weeks to separation at 8 weeks (B), from 8 - 12 weeks (C) and from 12 - 15 weeks (heifers only) (D). Control data from AHDB (2020a) is also shown (see key)
In the 8 weeks following separation, milk yield did not return to an expected average morning yield, though this data requires revisiting and examining within the context of economic data on milk replacer, labour and DLWG.
During the trial, there were anecdotal concerns about mastitis approaching separation at 8 weeks, though udder health was considered excellent otherwise. Farm staff reported that milk let down was problematic for some cows, though this was not measured and would need to be measured in future to see if this was an issue and explore mitigation strategies.
Separation of calves and cows was abrupt (at the same time as weaning) due to mastitis concerns, rather than phased as planned. Data gathered suggested cows experienced an acute period indicative of stress post-separation, shown in significant decreased rumination and eating activity and increased display of stress behaviour (pacing), as well as decreased maintenance behaviours (lying). However, it was not possible to compare this to cows separated from their calves soon after birth, or monitor the duration of these behaviours over days or weeks as intended.
The Rumination activity (RA) and Eating activity (EA) of each trial cow between pre-separation and post-separation phases.
The change in frequency of pacing behaviour post-separation (07/01/20)
It was not possible to compare these behaviours to cows separated from their calves soon after birth, or monitor duration of these behaviours (from either group) over days or weeks as intended, due to Covid-19. Although the results are promising, due to Covid-19, logistical issues on farm, and piloting new methods to record data the group would like to re-run the study before making any statements regarding behaviour, welfare and production.