Abstract

When livestock are turned out to semi-natural grasslands, an effective onset of grazing is important both for animal productivity and for defoliation of the sward, which preserve the biodiversity of the vegetation. The aim of this study was to investigate whether foraging behaviour of naive calves turned out to pasture was more intense, with a resulting diminished live weight loss, when experienced cattle accompanied them acting as social models. Twenty-six first-season grazing (FSG) dairy calves, allocated to groups with or without company of older, grazing-experienced steers, were turned out to semi-natural grasslands. Cattle behaviour was automatically recorded for 24 h during the first day on pasture and during 24 h after I month. Furthermore, the average live weight changes for the first day and for the first month on pasture were calculated. Calves turned out to pasture accompanied by grazing-experienced steers had similar grazing times (on average 42.7% of the day) to calves turned out to pasture in groups without older steers, but they had higher grazing activity during the first day on pasture (score 124 vs. 99, P = 0.005). Live weight changes were similar in calves kept with as in calves kept without company of grazing-experienced steers (-4.60 kg for the first day and -0.30 kg day(-1) for the first month on pasture). In conclusion, the company of grazing-experienced conspecifics resulted in higher grazing activity in naive calves, but their time spent grazing and live weight gains were unmodified. Hence, in this limited study we found no major positive effects on production of using grazing-experienced cattle as company to FSG calves on semi-natural grasslands. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Naive grazer; Turn-out; Experience; Foraging; Activity; Weight gain

Published in

Applied Animal Behaviour Science
2009, Volume: 116, number: 2-4, pages: 150-155
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

SLU Authors

• Hessle, Anna

  • Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG15 Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss


UKÄ Subject classification

Animal and Dairy Science
Veterinary Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2008.08.004

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/61351