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Vasikoiden vieroitus juotolta lypsykarjatiloilla

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Vasikoiden vieroitus juotolta lypsykarjatiloilla

Our topic is weaning of calves on dairy farms. Calves are fed with milk or milk substitutes until they are 2-3 months old. Calf’s stomachs are developing during this period when the calf is getting also concentrates, clean water and good quality roughage. The weaned should be a ruminant, which is able to make use of forage and concentrated feed The survey and interviews were conducted in the spring 2015. We conducted a survey of livestock owners considering the management of calves during the milk feeding period and at weaning. We also asked about the potential problems at weaning and the practises of preventing these problems. We also interviewed veterinarians and a calf breeder. A survey revealed that the practices of weaning are diverse, depending on the type of barn and the size of the herd. The amount of milk given to calves was 6-10 litres/day at most of the farms. The weaning age of the calves was 8-12 weeks, but was some farms also had either short (4vk) or a really long (16vk) periods of milk feeding. According to the survey amounts of milk given to calves and weaning ages of calves were in accordance with the recommendations. Veterinary interview revealed that their principles about the amount of milk and weaning age were fairly similar to farmers. The vet emphasized that the calves should be given only concentrates intented to calves, not the concentrates for dairy cows. Based on the questionnaire, many of the farmers used the same con-centrates for calves and cows. We got the impression that part of the farmers did not recognize the weaning stress of the calves. Farmers who were aware of the calf’s stress behavior at weaning phase, mentioned many different ways of preventing the stress. However, most of the farmers felt that that weaning doesn’t cause any problems to the calves.

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