A survey of calf rearing practices in the south-west region of Western Australia
| العنوان: | A survey of calf rearing practices in the south-west region of Western Australia |
|---|---|
| المؤلفون: | JW Aleri, AD Fisher, J Gogoi-Tiwari, FK Waichigo, HR Sodagari, PC Irons, ID Robertson |
| المصدر: | New Zealand Veterinary Journal. 70:211-217 |
| بيانات النشر: | Informa UK Limited, 2022. |
| سنة النشر: | 2022 |
| مصطلحات موضوعية: | Dairying, Farms, General Veterinary, Pregnancy, Colostrum, Surveys and Questionnaires, Animals, Cattle, Female, Western Australia, General Medicine |
| الوصف: | To gather data on the calf management and rearing practices of a subset of dairy farmers in the south-west region of Western Australia.A 30-minute face-to-face survey was conducted with dairy cattle producers in the south-west region of Western Australia from April-June 2019 to determine pre-weaning calf rearing practices. Participation was voluntary, using a self-selected subset of dairy farmers registered with a regional extension group. The questionnaire assessed three broad categories: farm demographics, colostrum harvesting and management and calf rearing practices.The study response rate was 34/140 (24%). The following key areas were identified where there were deviations from recognised best practice: Precalving: no transition diet was fed pre-calving on 4/34 (12%) of farms, and on a further 5/34 (15%) it was fed for less than 3 weeks; mixing of heifers and adult cows in the calving paddocks occurred in 24/34 (70%) of the farms, with 15% (5/34) of the farms using calving induction. During calving 14/34 (41%) of the farms did not disinfect navels of new-born calves; although 23/34 farmers stated that they collected calves within 6 hours of birth, data on frequency of calf pick-up (2/34 did not separate calves and dams and 19/34 picked up only once per day) indicated that on 21/34 farms (62%) the reality was that calves were picked up12 hours after birth. Colostrum quality was not assessed appropriately on 18/34 (53%) farms and farmers overestimated how soon after birth it was administered: 23/34 (68%) reported feeding it within 6 hours of calving, despite 62% picking up calves12 hours after calving. Regarding calf rearing practices, no pain relief before or after dehorning was used on 20/34 (59%) farms, calf bedding was removed infrequently (weekly) on 26/35 (76%) farms and appropriate isolation of sick calves was only reported by 14/34 (41%) farmers.Although limited by the low response rate, this is the first survey of dairy calf rearing practices in the south-western region of Western Australia. We found evidence of at least one process inconsistent with industry best-practice on 34/140 (24%) of responding farms and all farms had more than one sub-optimal calf rearing practice. This highlights the need to improve calf rearing in this region and identifies key areas of deficiency for further study and extension to producers. |
| تدمد: | 1176-0710 0048-0169 |
| URL الوصول: | https://explore.openaire.eu/search/publication?articleId=doi_dedup___::69b5a9fd38238362a502d239a4380ebd https://doi.org/10.1080/00480169.2022.2042413 |
| حقوق: | OPEN |
| رقم الأكسشن: | edsair.doi.dedup.....69b5a9fd38238362a502d239a4380ebd |
| قاعدة البيانات: | OpenAIRE |
PDF full text from Publisher | تدمد: | 11760710 00480169 |
|---|