Cattle weight development is highly correlated with some body measurements. Based on the relationship between morphometric measurements and body mass, our aim was to develop regression equations to estimate the body weight of Curraleiro Pé-Duro (CPD) cattle to be used in farms that lack access to weighting scales. Data from 1023 animals from four farms on withers height (WH), body length (BL), body score (BS), heart girth (HG), permanent teeth (PT), scrotal perimeter (SP), and live weight were used. The animals were classified into five categories depending on age and/or sex: newborns (NB), calves, weaned animals, cows, and bulls. The best models are GLM with Gamma, Gamma, inverse Gaussian, Gaussian, and Gamma distributions for NB, calves, weaned animals, cows, and bulls, respectively. Predictive modeling for bulls was the best performing overall, with a correlation of 0.97 between the estimated by the model and the obtained with a weighting scale. For NB, calves, weaned animals, and cows, the correlation (r) was 0.85, 0.90, 0.95, and 0.87, respectively. The evaluated models are adequate to be used as a technical solution to estimate weight in a cattle production system.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11250-023-03884-x | DOI Listing |
J Dairy Sci
January 2025
EthoLab - Applied Ethology and Animal Welfare Lab, Graduate Program in Animal Science, School of Medicine and Life Sciences, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná, Curitiba, Paraná, 80215-901, Brazil. Electronic address:
Pair housing presents an alternative to individual or larger group housing systems, though the effects of different pairing ages on calf welfare are not well understood. In this study, we examined the impact of pairing age on the performance, health, and behavior of dairy calves. A total of 140 Holstein female calves (n = 70 pairs) were used, paired at 3 ages: Early (6-7 d; 48 calves), Intermediate (29-30 d; 48 calves), and Late pairing (49-50 d; 44 calves).
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January 2025
Department of Animal Science, Penn State University, University Park, PA, USA. Electronic address:
This observational study evaluated the relationship between lung consolidation observed at weaning and calf ADG, and the association of pathogen shedding at weaning on ADG in beef × dairy calves up to 238 d. Beef × Holstein calves (n = 143) were sourced from 2 dairies. Calves were managed in 3 cohorts and fed milk replacer and calf starter preweaning.
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January 2025
Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden; The Beijer Laboratory for Animal Science, Faculty for Vet. Med. and Animal Science, SLU, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden.
In cow-calf contact (CCC) systems breaking the maternal bond may induce stress for the cow, thereby affecting feed intake, milk yield, milk flow rate, and milk electrical conductivity. This study aimed to determine the consequences of weaning and separation strategies in CCC systems for feed intake and milking characteristics of the cow. In 2 experiments, Swedish Holstein and Swedish Red cows either had (experiment 1) whole-day CCC (CCC1, n = 12) for 8.
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January 2025
Department of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, Aarhus University, Tjele, Denmark.
Given increasing adoption of social housing for pre-weaned dairy calves, we conducted a systematic review to summarize existing literature describing effects of social housing management factors on behavior, performance, and health of dairy calves. Included articles addressed interventions applied to pre-weaned, socially housed dairy calves, encompassing age at introduction to social housing, group composition (size, stocking density, within-group age range, stability), and housing environment (space allowance, enrichment provision). Outcome measures addressed behavior, including social behavior, locomotor behavior, feeding behavior, abnormal oral behavior, and behavioral responses during tests; performance, including body measurements and weight gain; and health, including clinical health scores and mortality rate.
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January 2025
Animal Welfare Program, Faculty of Land and Food Systems, The University of British Columbia, 2357 Main Mall, Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6T 1Z4. Electronic address:
Decades of research have helped inform practices on how to care for calves, but little is known about how well these practices are adopted on commercial dairy farms. The primary aim of this study was to describe rearing practices of dairy calves in British Columbia, Canada. Measures of calf growth are sometimes used to assess success in calf rearing, so a secondary aim was to describe methods used to assess calf growth on these farms.
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