Optimalt mottagningsstall för kalvar
en fältstudie
A cattle producer that buys calves that are younger than six months to the herd should have a starter stable to prevent infection spreading in the herd. According to the Swedish animal welfare regulation there has to be a starter stable if more than 50 calves that are younger than four months are bought in yearly to the herd. The aim of the study was to improve the knowledge about bovine buildings and management of starter stables to obtain optimal weight gain and health of the calves. The hypothesis 1) The younger the calves are when purchased, the higher the calf mortality and 2) Purchasing calves from a high number of herds involves a higher risk of calf health problems and calf mortality were tested in the study. The objective of the study was to give advices by way of presenting ideal solutions of how a starter stable should be constructed and managed.
A field study was done during June to September 2008 to collect knowledge and experience from existing starter stables. 36 starter stables were visited in the south and middle of Sweden. The field-study was done as farm visit and lasted between 1.5-2 hours. The farms were found by the assistance of the Swedish Board of Agriculture and the Swedish Animal Health Service.
36 beef producers were visited. 16 herds were producing young bulls, 11 herds were producing barley beef calves, one herd was producing bullocks, three herds were producing both young bulls and barley beef calves, four herds were producing both bullocks and young bulls and one herd only produced live calves for sale. The size of the herds ranged from 31 slaughtered animals per year to 1099 slaughtered animals per year.
Calves that were younger than one month were kept in insulated starter stables while the calves that were older than one month were kept in both insulated and uninsulated starter stables. The housing systems that usually were used in the starter stable were group pens.
12 herds bought calves that were younger than one month. The calves were just as often feed automatically as manually but in large herds (> 500 bought calves per year) the calves were often feed automatically. The most common feeding techniques for roughage and concentrates were manual feeding. The pens were bedded daily and it was usually done manually. The most common bedding material was straw. The majorities of the starter stables were only washed once a year and were never empty between the batches.
There were large variations of calf mortality between the herds. The mean value of the calf mortality was 3.6 %. The study showed that the age of the calf at purchase and the absence of manure removal work between the batches both affected the calf mortality negatively. If the herd received younger calves and didn?t remove the manure between every batch the herd got a higher calf mortality compared to herds that received older calves and removed the old bedding and manure between every batch. The strewing frequency was affected the cleanness of the animal. There was a tendency that more signs of pneumonia occurred in starter stables with large groups. Finally the most important is the management of the calves and not necessarily the building construction.