Reaction of Calves to Two Flooring Materials Offered Simultaneously in One Pen |
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Authors: | J Stefanowska D Swierstra A C Smits J V Van Den Berg J H M Metz |
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Institution: | Department of Horse Breeding and Use, Faculty of Biology and Animal Breeding , University of Life Sciences in Lublin , Lublin , Poland |
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Abstract: | Now that group housing is replacing individual crates, so that calves can lie, stand and walk on the pen floor, the quality of the floor for group-housed calves has become the focus of attention. The reaction of two groups of four calves to a double area of floor made from two materials (wooden slats and synthetic slats with a rubber coating) was examined round the clock for 5 days. The calves were switched between pens twice, and in each case the 5 day observation period was repeated. In all three phases all calves spent significantly more time ( P <0.01) lying on the wooden floor: on average 656 min day -1 compared with 294 min day -1 on the synthetic floor. The time spent in the standing/walking position on both floors, occurrence of slip incidents and self-maintenance behaviour did not differ significantly between floors. The observations on use of the pen floor for lying and for standing/walking in combination with feeding, plus observations on fouling of the floors with excreta suggest that future pen design could be functionally divided into lying and walking/eating areas. |
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Keywords: | Behaviour Flooring Hardwood Preference Veal Calves |
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