Associations between milk intake and activity in the first days of a calf's life and later growth and health

• Published in: Applied animal behaviour science 2016-02, Vol.175, p.2-7
• Main Authors: de Passillé, Anne Marie, Rabeyrin, Marine, Rushen, Jeffrey
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activity; Calf vigour; Dairy calf; Health; Milk intake; Weight gain
• ISSN: 0168-1591; 1872-9045
• DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2014.10.002

•Dairy calves treated for illness had lower milk intakes prior to illness.•Milk intake of dairy calves on the 4th day of life was correlated with pre-weaning weight gains.•Milk intake may be a better sign of early calf vigour than activity levels. We examined whether calves’ milk intake and activity in the days after birth predict later growth and the risk of illness. Female Holstein calves (n=130) were housed in individual pens where they were allowed ad libitum milk from birth to 5 days of age. Daily milk intakes were recorded and accelerometers attached to the calves measured time spent standing and lying down. After 5 days, calves were housed in group pens with four to nine calves per group and allowed 12L/day of milk and ad libitum hay and starter from automated feeders. Calves were weighed at birth (birth weight=BW) and at 28 days of age and health status was determined daily. Digestible energy (DE) intakes were calculated from feed intakes. During days 2–4, there were large differences among calves in the amount of milk consumed, which ranged from 7.3% BW/day (2.4L/day) to 30.5% BW/day (12L/day) with a median of 16.3% BW/day (6.7L/day). Twenty-one calves were treated for illness from days 6 to 28. These calves had lower milk intakes on days 2, 3 and 4 than calves that remained healthy (P