Strategies for keeping dairy cows and calves together – a cross-sectional survey study

Interest in keeping dairy calves with adult cows for a period of time after calving is increasing among consumers and dairy farmers. At present, however, it is largely unexplored how dairy farmers implement cow-calf housing on their farms. This survey therefore investigated how dairy farms with cow-calf contact managed their animals during the time that cows and calves are in contact. In addition, it evaluated which aspects of management were perceived as most challenging, and how farmers dealt with these challenges. Interviews were conducted on 104 dairy farms from six European countries. The farms kept cows and calves together for at least 7 days, and sold milk to dairies. The respondent could be either the owner or the farm manager. Cow-calf farming was practised on farms with a wide range of management systems, from small farms that kept their animals outdoors throughout the year and milked cows by hand or in mobile clamp milking machines to robotic farms. Calves could be kept with the dam or foster cow for part or all of the milking period. Daily contact time varied between farms, from 15 min twice a day at milking to contact throughout the day. Many farmers had observed stress-related behaviours when cows and calves were finally separated, yet the most common separation method was to move the calves away from the cows without first reducing contact time. Constraints with existing buildings were most often cited by farmers as a difficulty in starting cow-calf farming. Structured questionnaire-based interviews regarding the management and feeding of cows and calves were conducted on 104 European dairy farms where calves were kept with adult lactating cows for at least 7 days after calving. The study collected mainly quantitative data, which allowed the inclusion of a larger number of farms. As it is not possible to identify farms with cow-calf contact in central databases, the included farms represent a non-probability sample. However, this study is currently the largest survey conducted regarding the use of cow-calf contact on commercial dairy farms. The study was designed to collect baseline data in this new area of research, and the results are therefore presented descriptively. We used Netigate to gather the interview responses and analysed the data using the softwares R, Stata and Microsoft Excel. Paths need to be customized in order for it to function (is there reference to "MyRepository" on line 6). The data file contains 114 rows and 189 columns.消费者与奶农对奶用犊牛在产后与成年母牛共处一段时间的关注度与日俱增。然而目前学界对奶农如何在牧场推行母牛-犊牛共养（cow-calf housing）模式仍知之甚少。因此本调研旨在探究实施母牛-犊牛接触饲养（cow-calf contact）的牧场，在二者共处期间的动物管理方式。此外，本研究还评估了牧场管理者认为最具挑战性的管理环节，以及奶农应对这些挑战的具体举措。调研团队对来自6个欧洲国家的104家奶牧场开展了访谈。受访牧场均保证母牛与犊牛共处至少7天，且向乳品加工厂售卖原料乳。受访对象可为牧场所有者或牧场经理。本次调研涵盖的牧场管理体系跨度极大，涵盖全年将动物户外散养、采用手工挤奶或移动式夹钳挤奶设备的小型牧场，直至机器人挤奶牧场。犊牛可在部分或全部挤奶时段与生母母牛或寄养母牛共处。不同牧场的每日共处时长差异显著，从仅在每日两次挤奶时的15分钟接触，到全天无间断共处均有存在。不少奶农观察到，最终将二者分离时会出现与应激相关的行为，但最普遍的分离方式仍是直接将犊牛移离母牛，未提前逐步减少共处时长。奶农最常提及的开展母牛-犊牛共养模式的阻碍，为现有畜舍设施的限制。 针对产后犊牛与泌乳成年母牛共处至少7天的104家欧洲奶牧场，调研团队开展了关于母牛与犊牛管理及饲喂的结构化问卷（structured questionnaire）访谈。本研究主要采集定量数据（quantitative data），因此可纳入更多牧场样本。由于无法在中央数据库中检索到开展母牛-犊牛接触饲养的牧场，本次受访牧场属于非概率抽样样本（non-probability sample）。但本研究仍是目前商业奶牧场母牛-犊牛接触饲养模式领域规模最大的调研。本研究旨在为这一新兴研究领域收集基线数据（baseline data），因此研究结果以描述性方式呈现。调研采用Netigate平台收集访谈数据，并使用R、Stata及Microsoft Excel软件开展数据分析。需自定义路径以保障其正常运行（第6行是否引用了"MyRepository"）。 本数据集文件共包含114行与189列。