TY - GEN
T1 - Effect of separation at weaning on the activity of cows and calves reared in a cow-calf contact system measured with accelerometer sensors
AU - McPherson, S.E.
AU - Riaboff, L.
AU - Dissanayake, O.
AU - Sinnott, A.
AU - Cunningham, P.
AU - Kennedy, E.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - One welfare challenge of dairy cow-calf contact (CCC) rearing systems is the separation of the bonded cow-calf pair at weaning. Here, activity of 14 cow-calf pairs in 3 different CCC systems (no contact (control, CT), 4 pairs; part-time contact (PT), 5 pairs; full-time contact (FT), 5 pairs) was investigated. Each animal was equipped with a 3D-accelerom-eter (sampling rate: 12.5 Hz) attached to a neck-collar from two months pre-separation to one month post-separation. For each animal, the magnitude of the acceleration was calculated and segmented into 10-minutes windows from which six accelerometer features were computed. Each feature was modeled according to the treatment (CT, FT, PT), phase (pre-separation, separation, post-separation), interaction, and animal as a random effect. ANOVA and Tukey’s pairwise comparison test were applied. Overall, FT calves expressed more high energy expenditure behaviors and activity peaks than CT calves (p < 0.05). More high intensity behaviors were expressed in post-separation both for FT and PT calves (p < 0.05) but the trend observed from pre-separation to separation phase was different depending on the treatment (interaction; p < 0.05). For cows, higher overall activity (p < 0.05), more intense behaviors (p < 0.05) and more activity peaks (p < 0.05) were observed after separation compared to pre-separation, regardless of treatment. Ongoing experiments should help to link activity change and distress in order to propose recommendations in CCC systems.
AB - One welfare challenge of dairy cow-calf contact (CCC) rearing systems is the separation of the bonded cow-calf pair at weaning. Here, activity of 14 cow-calf pairs in 3 different CCC systems (no contact (control, CT), 4 pairs; part-time contact (PT), 5 pairs; full-time contact (FT), 5 pairs) was investigated. Each animal was equipped with a 3D-accelerom-eter (sampling rate: 12.5 Hz) attached to a neck-collar from two months pre-separation to one month post-separation. For each animal, the magnitude of the acceleration was calculated and segmented into 10-minutes windows from which six accelerometer features were computed. Each feature was modeled according to the treatment (CT, FT, PT), phase (pre-separation, separation, post-separation), interaction, and animal as a random effect. ANOVA and Tukey’s pairwise comparison test were applied. Overall, FT calves expressed more high energy expenditure behaviors and activity peaks than CT calves (p < 0.05). More high intensity behaviors were expressed in post-separation both for FT and PT calves (p < 0.05) but the trend observed from pre-separation to separation phase was different depending on the treatment (interaction; p < 0.05). For cows, higher overall activity (p < 0.05), more intense behaviors (p < 0.05) and more activity peaks (p < 0.05) were observed after separation compared to pre-separation, regardless of treatment. Ongoing experiments should help to link activity change and distress in order to propose recommendations in CCC systems.
KW - activity
KW - Cow-calf contact rearing system
KW - distress
KW - wearable 3D-accelerometer
M3 - Conference paper
AN - SCOPUS:85172331698
T3 - Precision Livestock Farming 2022 - Papers Presented at the 10th European Conference on Precision Livestock Farming, ECPLF 2022
SP - 64
EP - 72
BT - Precision Livestock Farming 2022 - Papers Presented at the 10th European Conference on Precision Livestock Farming, ECPLF 2022
A2 - Berckmans, Daniel
A2 - Oczak, Maciej
A2 - Iwersen, Michael
A2 - Wagener, Karen
PB - European Association for Precision Livestock Farming
T2 - 10th European Conference on Precision Livestock Farming, ECPLF 2022
Y2 - 29 August 2022 through 2 September 2022
ER -