INVESTIGATING THE IMPACT OF COW-CALF CONTACT ON DAIRY COW AND CALF WELFARE

<b>Project Methods</b><br> To achieve Objectives 1 and 2, an observational study will be performed on dairy farms in the United States during Years 1 and 2. Data will be collected on 24 dairy farms (n = 12 cow-calf contact and n = 12 immediate separation). Each farm will be visited 3 times; once in the spring, summer, and fall to reflect seasonal changes. Farms will be eligible for inclusion in the cow-calf contact group if calves are kept with their dam for at least 1 week after calving and in the immediate separation group if calves are removed from their dam within 24 hours after calving. Cow-calf contact and immediate separation farms will be matched based on farm size and region. A total of 20 preweaned calves (i.e., still fed milk) and their dams (n = 20) will be assessed at each farm.Approach to Reach Objective 1. Describe animal and resource-based measures of cow and calf welfare on dairy farms that utilize extended cow-calf contact and immediate separation. At each farm visit, the researchers will document animal care and herd management practices, and record animal and resource-based measures of welfare.Animal-based measures of welfare. To determine the prevalence of common animal-based measures of welfare, a visual assessment will be performed on the selected calves and their dams. Assessments will include evaluation of body condition, locomotion, and hygiene scores. Breed, parity, cow days in milk, and calf age will be recorded.Resource-based measures of welfare. To identify resource/management-based measures of welfare, a questionnaire will be developed which researchers will complete with producers on each farm during the first farm visit. General management practices will be recorded, including operation type (i.e., pasture, grass fed, or other), herd size, parlor type, calf housing (i.e., individual, pair, group, with cows), cow housing (i.e., tie-stall, freestall, pack barn, pasture), and preventive health protocols (i.e., dry cow therapy, calf vaccinations, etc.). Feeding management will be recorded for cows (i.e., TMR, extensive grazing, rotational grazing), calves (e.g., milk replacer, suckling from cow, concentrate provided, pasture access), colostrum protocol (e.g., suckle dam for colostrum, bottle fed), and water access.Determining the impact of cow-calf contact on health and welfare is the main objective of this project. As such, we will record management specific to calving and cow-calf contact. Calving measures will include pre-partum environment (e.g., indoors, indoors with outdoor access, rotational grazing, extensive grazing), calving pen (e.g., individual, group, pasture), calving pen cleaning frequency, and length of time spent in pen after calving (with or without calf). Post-calving measures will include days in milk cows rejoin the herd after calving, length of cow-calf contact, cow-calf contact (i.e., none, partial, full, foster cow), social group (e.g., cows only, cows and calves), cow-calf separation method (e.g., abrupt, gradual), and calf access to milk parlor.Approach to Reach Objective 2. Investigate herd-level risk factors of disease on farms that utilize extended cow-calf contact and immediate separation. Animal health assessments and herd records will be recorded to determine herd-level risk factors of morbidity and mortality for cows and calves.Cow and calf health. At the time of farm visits, a health exam will be performed on the animals assessed in Objective 1. Cow health exams will include ocular discharge, nasal discharge, difficulty breathing, vulvar discharge, and somatic cell count. Health exams will be performed on the calves using the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine (2015) scoring system. Calves will be respiratory, fecal, navel, and attitude scored. Farm records from the previous year will be collected and the questionnaire from Objective 1 will be further developed to discuss animal health with the dairy producers. Questions will include the number of cows currently being treatment for lameness and under a mastitis withholding period, and most recent bulk milk SCC. Additionally, producers will be asked to refer to herd records to determine the number of mastitis cases within 30 days of calving, metritis cases, retained placenta, culling within 60 days after calving, down cows requiring treatment, displaced abomasum, and mortality. Calf records will also be requested to determine the number of calves that were treated for disease, died, or were euthanized. Main causes of death and euthanasia methods will be recorded.Approach to Reach Objective 3. Describe dairy producer attitudes toward extended cow-calf contact using semi-structured interview and a mixed-methods questionnaire. A semi-structured interview will be used to determine dairy producer attitudes toward cow-calf contact. Using findings from these responses, a survey will be developed and mailed to a larger group of dairy producers to develop a more thorough understanding of producer attitudes toward extended cow-calf contact.Interviews. During the first farm visit (Objectives 1 and 2; n = 24), a semi-structed interview will be performed with the producers and will include with closed-ended questions (e.g., Likert scale and ranking options) and open-ended questions to allow more free ranging responses from producers. The initial survey will capture producers' attitudes on extended cow-calf contact to determine perceptions of the impacts of cow-calf separation on animal health and welfare and producers' decision-making process as to how they manage cow-calf separation. Additionally, questions will be included to provide insight into the influence of public perceptions and societal attitudes toward animal well-being in their decision-making about cow-calf separation along with producers' reasoning for the management practice they embrace.Producer Survey. Using results from the initial producer interview to develop additional questions, a more detailed will be mailed to 1,224 dairy producers in the United States. This survey will include more closed-ended questions than the initial interview given the much larger sample size. This mail survey is intended to gather similar data of cow-calf management practices, producer attitudes toward cow-calf separation, and perceptions of impacts on animal welfare of selected practices. A similar content analysis process will be conducted on the mail surveys as presented above. This larger survey may provide a more detailed picture of common practices and results that can be utilized to inform our understanding of best practices for cow-calf management.