Other projects

Project management: Dr. Zipp, Katharina A.; Nasirahmadi, Abozar; Dipl.-Ing. Kulig, Boris; Prof. Dr. Knierim, Ute

Publications:

Project management: Dr. Zipp, Katharina A.; Prof. Dr. Knierim, Ute

Project description:

The effects of three rearing conditions on lying behavior
after the integration of heifers into the dairy herd and their productivity
in the first lactation were investigated: (1) free, (2) half-day (06:45-18:00)
and (3) no mother contact during the first nine weeks of life. The calves with
maternal contact were kept and suckled in groups of 13 or 11 cows and their calves in the
cow shed ("Free": N=5, "Half": N=5). The animals without
maternal contact had been separated from their mothers after calving, had been kept for one
week in a single igloo and then in groups and had received a maximum of
2x3 L of warmed whole milk per day with a teat bucket ("Without": N=9).
In the 10th week of life, the mother-contact calves were separated from the
mother on sight and accustomed to drinking from the teat bucket. In the
11th week of life, all calves were grouped together and immediately
treated in the same way, which involved gradual weaning from milk until the 13th
week of life. The mature heifers were integrated into the 61-90 head dairy herd 2-3 milking times
after calving, usually individually, in one ("Ohne") or three cases ("Frei") in
pairs, in the evening. All but
two "Ohne" animals had access to pasture during integration. The
lying behavior was determined using data loggers during the first 48 hours.
Thereafter, body weight, height at withers and rump circumference of the animals were measured
and age at first calving, milk yield up to the 100th day of lactation, average
daily milk yield of the entire lactation, lactation duration and culling were determined using the
data from the milk yield test. "Free" and "Half" did not differ
significantly. In the second 24 h after integration,
"Free" animals were significantly longer, "Half" animals tended to be longer than "Without" heifers,
which indicates a reduced stress on the mother-reared heifers due to
the integration situation. In the "Free"
and "Half" groups, the lying time increased from the first to the second 24 h after
integration due to more frequent lying phases. In contrast, the
lying time of the "without" animals only increased numerically over time due to a
significant increase in the length of the lying phase while the lying frequency remained low
. Further effects of the
rearing conditions could not be determined.

Publications:

Project management: Dr. Zipp, Katharina A.; Prof. Dr. Knierim, Ute
Project participants: Barth, Kerstin

Project description:

In mother-bonded calf rearing, dairy cows suckle their
own calf for several weeks and are additionally milked. This
can result in a very large loss of milk yield for the farm. To
some extent, this is due to impaired alveolar milk ejection during milking. The aim of this
dissertation was therefore to increase the milk yield in
mother-based calf rearing. Possible effects
of acoustic, olfactory and manual stimulation during milking in the
milking parlor were investigated in cows with free and without calf contact. As stress during milking
can be a cause of inhibited alveolar milk ejection in the milking parlor,
restlessness, heart rate (HR)
and heart rate variability (HRV) were recorded in addition to milk yield parameters. In a further approach,
the effect of reducing the number of contact hours per day on the performance of cows
and calves was investigated. This involved comparing half-day with free contact and a
control without calf contact.

In a pilot study (Chapter 2), it was first examined
whether calf hair is suitable as an olfactory stimulus in the tandem milking parlor.
For this purpose, the behavioral responses of 17 multiparous and 6 primiparous cows
with free calf contact and 13 multiparous and 4 primiparous cows without
calf contact to three different odor variants were evaluated: (1)
hair from their own calf in a thin cloth bag with which the calf was previously
rubbed ("own"), (2) hair from a foreign calf in a thin
cloth bag with which the calf was previously rubbed ("foreign") or (3) a
cloth bag without calf hair ("control"). Between the 12th and 20th
day of lactation, two of the three odor variants were presented in different combinations in stainless steel baskets
in the milking stalls of the tandem milking parlor at each milking time
for six consecutive milking times. The number of
reacting animals, the number of milking times with reaction and the duration of the
reaction within the time from insertion of the first bag to the
start of milking (smelling or licking, in % of the total observation time) were recorded. The
data were analyzed using non-parametric tests. 60%
of all cows reacted at least once to a bag of calf hair. However,
the proportion of milking times with a reaction was only 23%. Numerically, more cows
with than without calf contact showed a reaction to "own" or "foreign" (70% vs. 47%).
When considering all animals that reacted at least once with complete
data sets, the number of milking times with reaction per animal
differed significantly between the different stimuli (N = 28, P = 0.003). The
reaction time of the reacting multiparous cows of both groups and the
reaction time of the reigning contact animals of both parities differed
significantly between the stimuli (N = 12, P = 0.049; N = 11, P = 0.034).
Primiparous animals of both groups responded more frequently, but were less
selective in their behavior. Thus, the reaction time regarding
the different samples only tended to differ (N = 8, P = 0.061). Hair from the own
calf always elicited the strongest and the "control" the weakest
reactions; the reactions to "foreign" were in between. However, post-hoc
tests did not reveal any significant differences between "own" and
"other". In general, the
reaction time and the number of reacting animals decreased with the number of test milkings. The reasons for this could
be a habituation effect on the one hand, but on the other hand the intensity
of the odor could also have decreased with increasing storage time. Although the
olfactory stimuli used only triggered behavioral reactions to a small extent,
it can be concluded that the reacting multiparous cows of both
groups and the primiparous contact animals were able to perceive the calf odor and
preferentially smelled or licked samples with calf hair.

Fifteen calving cows and 22 control animals from the
pilot study also took part in the next project (Chapter 3). Both
studies were carried out on the Thünen Institute's experimental farm in
Trenthorst, where the cows were kept in two identically designed
loose housing compartments with cubicles and one calf pen per compartment
. In this trial, milkable milk yield, machine holding time,
milk flow characteristics, milk fat content, somatic cell count (as SCS),
restlessness, HR and HRV were recorded. During three consecutive weeks
(26th to 50th day of lactation), one of
three stimulations was applied in the milking parlor at four milking times each week and compared with routine milkings during
the same week. The stimulations consisted of playing
recorded calls of calves in front of the milk trough (acoustic), hair of the
own calf in a thin cloth bag with which the calf had been rubbed beforehand
(olfactory) and teat massage following normal pre-milking and
udder cleaning (total 60 seconds, manual). During routine milking
, after the described udder preparation of approx. 20 seconds,
a 40-second vibration stimulation was applied. The data were analyzed using
mixed models. Overall, the milkable milk yield (-9.9
kg per milking time), the fat content of the milk (-0.66%) and the milk flow of the
calving cows were reduced compared to the control (all comparisons: P
< 0.0001, effect size: r > 0.70). The somatic cell score (SCS), as an
indicator of udder health, did not differ between the groups with
and without calf contact (P = 0.4111, r = 0.13). Behavior during
udder preparation, rumination, tripping and kicking, HR and some
parameters of HRV (RMSSD, SDNN, HF%) in the milking parlor did not
differ between cows with and without calf contact. Calving cows showed a tense head posture during
more milking times (13.1% vs. 1.2%, P = 0.0007, r =
0.56) and defecation (8.7% vs. 4.6% of milking times, P = 0.0125, r = 0.50).
On the other hand, some HRV parameters (LF%, LF/HF) indicated an increased
parasympathetic activity of the calving cows (P < 0.05, r >
0.30). The reason for this could be a generally increased parasympathetic activity
due to suckling and the associated hormonal changes.
This could also be related to increased intestinal peristalsis and increased
defecation. None of the stimuli used had a significant
effect on the animals. The average minute main milking was reduced during
manual stimulation (P = 0.0494, r = 0.10), but this
was probably caused by technical differences in milking with and without vibration stimulation
. The more robust parameters of alveolar milk ejection, such as
milk yield and fat content, were unaffected by teat massage
. During acoustic stimulation, the SCS of the mothers
was lower than during routine milking, while it remained constant in the control group
(interaction: P = 0.0023). There is no obvious
explanation for this. In summary, the applied stimuli in the milking parlor
had no effect on the impaired milk yield during free cow-calf contact. The
suckling had a positive effect on the physiological state of the mothers,
but the milking process led to more tension than in cows without
calf contact.

Since the stimuli used did not lead to an improvement in the
milk yield of lactating cows during milking, the influence of
different lengths of cow-calf contact per day was investigated in a third
experiment on the experimental farm of the University of Kassel (Chapter 4). For
three days after calving, there was free cow-calf contact in the
calving pens. Thereafter, 11 cows had half-day calf contact between the
morning and evening milking (approx. 10 h 45 min, "half-day") and 13 cows had free
calf contact (24 h, "free"). Both groups were housed in separate
deep litter compartments with calf pens. Cows in the "without
contact" group were separated from the calf within the first half day post partum
and kept in a third deep litter compartment one day after birth.
The calves "without contact" were housed in individual igloos within the first week and
then in a straw-bedded box with calves of a similar age
. They were fed a maximum of 2x3 L of warmed whole milk per day using
teat buckets. All cows were milked twice a day. After nine weeks of
"suckling", the "half-day" and "free" calves were regrouped in a department,
from where they could see their mother; however, touching or suckling was no longer possible
. At the same time, the calves were accustomed to drinking from the
teat bucket (2x3 L ^d-1, "in sight+milk drinker"). In the 11th
and 12th week of life, these calves were kept together with the calves "without contact"
and gradually weaned from milk (4 -
2 L per day). There they could no longer see their mothers (4 - 2 L ^d-1,
"out of sight+weaning"). Data collection ended two weeks after weaning
(13th and 14th week of life, "after weaning"). Mixed models
were used to analyze the influence of cow-calf contact duration and the experimental phase on
milk yield, milk constituents, SCS and the proportion of
milkings with a somatic cell count >100,000 cells ^ml-1
. Analyses of variance were used to calculate the effect of contact duration
on the average daily milk yield of the lactation (220 - 305
milking days), the inter-calving period and the average daily gain of
calves during "suckling" and "in sight+milk feeding". After the
latter phase, the male calves were sold for fattening, which
reduced the sample size. The calf data of the subsequent phases
and the incidences of mastitis were evaluated using non-parametric tests
.

The milk yield during "suckling" in the
"half-day" animals was on average 9.9 kg below the yield of the animals "without
contact" (P = 0.0054, r = 0.48) and 3.6 kg above the yield of the "free" animals
(P = 0.0576, r = 0.32). Almost 80% of the daily milk yield of the
"half-day" animals was milked in the morning after separation from the calf overnight.
Over the entire lactation, the milk yield of the "half-day" animals
tended to be higher than that of the "free" animals (P = 0.0889, r = 0.31) and
did not differ significantly from the milk yield of the cows "without
contact"

(P = 0.2193, r = 0.23). The amount of milk that the calves "without contact" received via
teat bucket is not yet taken into account in this comparison and
would further reduce the difference between "half" and "without contact".
During "suckling", the milk fat content of the cows with calf contact was about
one percentage point lower than that of the animals "without contact". The lower yields for
milk yield and fat content indicate impaired
alveolar milk ejection in both contact groups. However, this did not
have a negative effect on udder health. The somatic cell counts did
not differ between the groups (P > 0.1), but the mastitis incidences were
generally high. During "suckling", the protein content of the milk
of the mothers was 0.15 - 0.30 percentage points higher and the lactose content 0.17 - 0.33
percentage points lower than that of the "no contact" group. After the "suckling" phase
, the milk yield, fat content and lactose content of the mothers increased again
. The protein content of "half-day" and "no contact" varied over the course of the
phases, whereas it remained stable in "free". The calving interval was
not influenced by the duration of calf contact (P = 0.714). The
weight development was similar across all phases for the calves with dam contact
. The daily weight gains of the calves "without contact" (N = 12) were
significantly lower during "suckling" (median: 0.64 kg vs. "Half" N = 7,
"Free" N = 10, both 0.96 kg ^d-1, P < 0.0001, r = 0.78), while
"in sight+milk drinker" were above those of "Half" and "Free" (_{No contact} =
11, 0.88 kg vs. _NHalb = 9, 0.36 kg and _NFree = 10, 0.38
kg per day, "Half" vs. "without contact": P = 0.0114, r = 0.46). During the
following weeks, the weight gains of the contact calves increased,
but remained numerically below the level of the "no contact" calves (P >
0.1, r < 0.20). However, two weeks after weaning, the body weight of the
"half" (N = 5) and "free" (N = 8) calves was still above that of the restrictively
fed "no contact" calves (N = 8) (median: 128.0 kg, 120.5 kg, 109.3
kg, "half" vs. "no contact": P = 0.0294, r = 0.48). In summary, in the trial presented at
, with similar calf development, the milk yield
tended to be increased by half-day mother-calf contact compared to free contact
.

Publications:

Project management: Prof. Dr. Knierim, Ute; Plesch, Gudrun

Project description:

In Germany, high-yielding Holstein cows are predominantly kept in cubicle housing systems. The lying behavior, as part of the resting behavior, plays an important role regarding regeneration and performance. Animal soiling, and udder soiling in particular, on the other hand, is a significant risk factor for animal health. Good lying comfort with low animal soiling is the aim of an optimal cubicle housing system. Since a connection between more generous cubicle dimensions and increased udder contamination is suspected, there are contradictory recommendations for cubicle dimensions. As part of an epidemiological study, possible correlations between cubicle design, animal size, lying behavior, animal soiling and management are therefore analyzed. The focus is on the question of whether more comfortable cubicle dimensions are always associated with increased udder soiling or which measures influence this.

Publications:

Project management: Prof. Dr. Knierim, Ute; Dr. Schulze Westerath, Heike
Project participants: Leach, Katharine; Whay, Bethy

Project description:

One aspect of welfare in animals is that they should be free from pain, suffering and harm. Thus, the condition of the skin and its appendages (integument) is often used as a health parameter when assessing the welfare of animals in husbandry or management conditions. As part of the EU project Welfare Quality®, the methods used to date to assess integumentary damage in cattle were critically discussed with regard to their reliability and practicability and a proposal for a standard method was developed that can be used as part of farm monitoring for animal welfare.
Funded by the European Union, 6th Research Framework Program

Publications:

Project management: Prof. Dr. Knierim, Ute; Dipl.-Ing. agr. M.Sc. Staack, Marion
Project participants: Dr. Keppler, Christiane; Günther, Maja; Gruber, Bettina; Dipl.-Ing. agr. Zaludik, Katrina; Niebuhr, Knut
 

Project description:

Although many facilitating factors for the development and occurrence of feather pecking and cannibalism during the laying period are known, these two behavioral disorders are still major problems in laying hen husbandry. In order to determine the influence of rearing conditions on the occurrence of feather pecking and cannibalism during the laying period, extensive data collection and integumentary assessments were carried out on 50 rearing farms and two subsequent laying farms in Germany and Austria. The aim of the project is to develop a catalog of minimum requirements for rearing pullets that will lead to a significant reduction in feather pecking and cannibalism in floor and free-range laying hens. The individual requirements are to be weighted in terms of their importance and evaluated in terms of feasibility and cost-effectiveness and can be used both as recommendations for keepers and as a starting point for the further development of the Animal Welfare Livestock Farming Ordinance. The basis for the creation of the catalog is an epidemiological study of practical conditions in pullet rearing with regard to the risk factors for feather pecking and cannibalism as well as a literature review and an expert survey. Funded by the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV) via the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE)

Publications:

Project management: Prof. Dr. Knierim, Ute; Dr. Keppler, Christiane

Project description:

As part of a trial, the suitability of feed mixtures for laying hens with components that originate exclusively from organic farming was investigated. A total of four different feed mixtures were used in different phase feedings and compared with groups that received only one feed mixture over the entire laying period. The laying performance, egg sizes, egg quality and losses were recorded. Integumentary assessments were carried out to evaluate feather pecking and cannibalism.

Project management: Dr. Keppler, Christiane; Prof. Dr. Knierim, Ute
Project participants: Dipl.-Ing. agr. Lange, Klaus; Prof. Dr. Fölsch, Detlef W.
 

Project description:

As part of a dissertation project, the question of which factors promote feather pecking and cannibalism in non-beak-docked animals under daylight conditions in enriched housing systems with litter is being investigated. For this purpose, the factors origin, stocking density, feeding (organic and conventional), perches and access to a covered run are investigated. During the laying period, the influence of different nest types is also determined. Since the extent of feather pecking or cannibalism in a flock of chickens can be seen from plumage damage and injuries to the animal, various methods for recording damage to the animal are also compared and evaluated.

Publications: