DSD 7.9 | Social housed calves build resilience seen as results in during lactation
It’s well accepted that management decisions during the first few weeks of life, can impact the long-term trajectory of success. Easy examples of this fact are colostrum management, plane of nutrition and vaccinations just to name a few. One can typically expect an increase in average daily gain, will return in the bulk tank 2 years later. Research on social housing over the years has shown an increased rate of gain during the milk phase, but hasn’t captured the implications later in life. First calf heifers transitioning into the milk string tend to be skittish, reluctant to enter the feed alley and fight with the boss cow. Through this transition, her size matters but also her ability to remain resilient in consistently tolerating the social attributes of the milk string. Dr. Emily Miller-Cushon , and her team of researchers from the University of FL in Gainesville really wanted to measure the impact of housing type on long-term effects, therefore they made the investment to compare individual, paired or group housing to determine if one housing type would dramatically impact her first lactation success. Listen in today to learn how social housing could improve your profits through increased survival and milk yields through social resilience. Topics of discussion 1:49 Introduction of Dr. Emily Miller-Cushon 2:47 Background overview of social housing 4:52 Project objectives and study design; individual, paired or group housed calves 6:04 What’s the best way to begin implementing paired housing on farm? 8:26 Managing the first two weeks of life for large groups 9:30 What’s the ideal age range in paired and groups. 10:24 Diets fed 11:48 Breeding aged culling rate 12:41 Cull risk timing (Figure 1) 14:01 ADG did not explain the milk yield change (Figure 4) 18:43 Cross sucking and mammary health 22:11 Longterm effects of paired housing, survival through lactation (Figure 2) 24:15 Milk production, first 5 weeks (Figure 3) 26:42 Disproportionately culled high producing, individually housed animals 28:04 What do you want boots on the ground dairymen to know from your research? Featured Article: Long-term effects of dairy calf social housing on first lactation survival and milk yield #2xAg2030; #journalofdairyscience; #openaccess; #MODAIRY; #groupedhousing; #pairedhousing; #dairy; #calf; #ADG; #survival; #resilence; #firstlactation; #dairysciencedigest; #ReaganBluel