Assessing welfare of dairy calves when using automated calf feeders in the upper Midwest

ASSESSING WELFARE OF DAIRY CALVES WHEN USING AUTOMATED CALF FEEDERS IN THE UPPER MIDWEST

Sponsoring Institution

National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Project Status

TERMINATED

Funding Source

AFRI COMPETITIVE GRANT

Reporting Frequency

Annual

Accession No.

0227929

Grant No.

2012-67021-19280

Project No.

MIN-16-G19

Proposal No.

2011-03651

Multistate No.

(N/A)

Program Code

A1521

Project Start Date

Feb 15, 2012

Project End Date

Feb 14, 2017

Grant Year

2012

Project Director
Endres, M. I.

Recipient Organization
UNIV OF MINNESOTA
(N/A)
ST PAUL,MN 55108

Performing Department
Animal Science

Non Technical Summary
Calves are the future of a dairy farm. Traditionally, calves are housed in individual pens until after weaning to minimize the risk of disease transfer and prevent cross-sucking. However, individual housing prevents social contact, limits opportunities for movement and, in the case of veal production, may be too small to allow the calves to turn around. Interest in automated (computer controlled) calf feeders used to feed calves in groups has been growing in the US. However, there is very limited research in the US on best housing, ventilation and management practices to be used with these feeders. Automated calf feeding systems allow calves to interact with each other in a group setting and drink milk many times a day while reducing labor. However, because of direct calf-to-calf contact, there may be an increased risk for morbidity (disease incidence) and mortality (death loss) on some farms adopting these systems. Preliminary observations by members of the team indicate that automated calf feeder use needs to be assessed on typical upper Midwest operations. The project brings together experienced interdisciplinary researchers with established track records of conducting collaborative studies with large databases. We propose to collect on-farm data from 30 dairy operations using automated calf feeders in the study area. Results from this study will lead to improvements in the utilization of automated calf feeding systems, and these improvements will enhance the sustainability of US dairy farms by reducing calf mortality and the labor requirements of calf rearing. Reduced calf mortality will improve dairy industry's profitability and public perception.

Animal Health Component

(N/A)

Research Effort Categories

Basic

40%

Applied

60%

Developmental

(N/A)

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
315	3410	1170	70%
307	3410	3100	30%

Knowledge Area
307 - Animal Management Systems; 315 - Animal Welfare/Well-Being and Protection;

Subject Of Investigation
3410 - Dairy cattle, live animal;

Field Of Science
1170 - Epidemiology; 3100 - Management;

Keywords

Goals / Objectives
The goals of this innovative project are to learn best practices to optimize the utilization of automated calf feeders in the US, to identify animal welfare issues associated with these systems, and to estimate their economic impact. These goals will be achieved by completing four objectives: Objective 1: Describe housing, management, and economics of farms using automated calf feeder systems; Objective 2: Document calf welfare (i.e., morbidity, mortality, growth, environmental conditions) in these facilities; Objective 3: Identify risk factors for morbidity (disease risk) and mortality; Objective 4: Develop best management practices for using automated calf feeders to improve animal welfare and dairy farm profitability. We expect to develop a large database of management practices utilized with automated calf feeders. There is no such database in the US. With the data, statistical results and economic analysis we expect to determine critical factors associated with calf morbidity and mortality, and develop best management practices for automated calf feeders to provide improved animal welfare and dairy farm profitability. Timeline/milestones: January 2012 to May 2012-Herd selection and enrollment,questionnaire development,training of research personnel,meeting of team members to discuss protocols, visit one of the sites for testing of welfare assessment procedures; Milestones-Study population selected and producer consent forms completed,questionnaire development completed,protocols in place and personnel trained. June 2012 to December 2013-On-farm data collection and data entry, quarterly meetings of the research team; Milestones-Successful completion of data collection with continuous oversight and participation by PD,start development of Dairy Calf Connection website. January 2014 to December 2014-Data analysis and summarization, preparation and submission of manuscripts/articles,team work to develop best practices; Milestones-Presentation of preliminary data at scientific meetings,preparation of online materials,Dairy Calf Connection website completed,presentations at producer meetings and webinars,best practices identified and disseminated,follow-up with producers that make changes,contact with producers to continue after end of project to document impact.

Project Methods
The project will be conducted as a prospective cohort study on 30 dairy farms using automated calf feeders. We will have approximately 9 cohorts of 20 calves (180 calves) per farm. Farms will be visited every 2 months throughout the on-farm collection phase of the study. During the first visit, a detailed questionnaire will be used to ask the producer about management practices on the farm. At each visit (or remotely), automated feeder computer records will be downloaded and calf health records collected. At each visit, blood samples will be collected from 12 clinically normal (not scouring) calves less than 5 day sold for analysis of serum total protein. The thermal environment will be assessed by temperature-humidity data loggers. Each pen will be assigned a nesting score based on the ability of the calves to nestle into the bedding. Ventilation and air quality will be evaluated. A calf health scoring system will be used to assess the health status of each calf during each visit. Calves will be observed for general play behavior taking place at the time of visit. Growth will be assessed at the farm level at each visit using a weight tape. Individual calf mortality and morbidity risk will be obtained from farm records. For Objectives 1 and 2 a descriptive statistical analysis will be performed to characterize management and housing in herds using automated calf feeders in the upper Midwest; and to document mortality, morbidity and growth rate as evaluation of animal welfare in these systems. For Objective 3 dichotomous data (i.e. morbidity and mortality) will be analyzed by logistic regression. We propose to develop and deliver a series of workshops for dairy producers and associated industry to disseminate our findings of best practices with automated calf feeders. We will also present results of the project at various conferences and scientific meetings. In addition, we will disseminate our results via our dairy extension website and develop a new area within the site devoted to dairy calf information. We will provide factsheets to other websites and use social media. In addition, we will publish articles on various popular dairy press publications. We will present webinars available for a national audience. Study results will also be published in peer-reviewed journals. We plan to provide individual reports of management weaknesses and strengths of each farm to the participating producers to help them improve the use of automated calf feeders. These farms will be followed-up (using email or phone) after completion of the study for documentation of improvements resulting from the application of the suggested practices developed in the project and their impact.

Progress 02/15/12 to 02/14/17

Outputs
Target Audience:Dairy producers - This was a major target audience for our project because they are the end users of the technology and have interest in learning how to better utilize automated cafl feeders Consultants, veterinarians, scientists, extension educators - This audience interacts with dairy producers and are a resource for information, therefore can also benefit from learning more about management of automated calf feeders. Students in Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine - Lectures by the PD about feeders for the next generation of consultants and producers Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Conferences for veterinarians and feed industry consultants; one-on-one training with graduate and undergraduate students. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results have been disseminated via dairy magazine publications, newspaper articles, webinars, lectures to students (in the US, Denmark and Brazil), seminars to the general public (e.g. 2016 Classes without Quizzes), and socia media (Twitter and Facebook). What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? High on-farm calf mortality and disease rate represent an economic loss for the dairy producer, but also a major animal welfare problem. Consumers expect that the animal products they consume are derived from animals that lived a good life under human care. For calves, having a good life includes the ability to interact and socialize with other calves at a young age, which helps develop their cognitive function and allows them to express natural play behaviors. However, it is also very important that they maintain good health. Our project aimed to develop best management practices for calves housed in groups at a young age and fed with automated milk feeders. These practices can result in calves that are healthy, therefore reducing calf mortality, and provide them with a good life. Healthy calves grow into healthy, productive and more efficient adult cows, helping to improve the environmental and economic sustainability of the dairy industry in the U.S. If we can maintain health in a group setting, we will meet the three criteria for good animal welfare - health and functioning, expression of natural behaviors, and positive affective state. What we learned in our project was that some housing and management factors can significantly influence health and mortality rate of dairy calves. These factors include group size, square footage per calf, age range within the group, practicing navel disinfection and pen disinfection between groups, barn ventilation rate, how soon calves are allowed to reach the maximum amount of milk per day, and the bacterial count of the milk they are fed. We also learned that winter season is more challenging as we observed a greater number of sick calves during that season. Calf group sizes of 8-15 calves are suggested, although larger dairy farms with narrow range of age between calves appeared to be successful using groups of 20 calves. It is suggested that a minimum of 35-40 square feet of space in the resting area be available to each calf and the best bedding material is straw, especially in the winter months. Use of positive pressure air ventilation tubes over the calves resulted in reduced number of sick animals on farms. In relation to nutrition, it is recommended to feed larger amounts of milk (8-10 liters) soon after introduction to the feeder. Bacterial counts in milk are suggested to be less than 100,000 colony-forming units/ml for standard plate count and less than 10,000 cfu/ml for coliform count. There was a wide variation in milk bacterial count across farms. It appeared that not all producers were necessarily implementing important feeder equipment cleaning procedures. Because the feeding system is automated, some producers might not have been aware of the importance of routine and thorough cleaning of the equipment, hoses, and nipples, to result in a high quality, clean milk fed to the calves. We have been disseminating this information via conference presentations, webinars, publications, and one-on-one discussions, as it appears that milk cleanliness is a key to make these systems work along with the other management and housing factors listed above. As part of our project, we developed an economic analysis web browser tool to help producers decide if they should invest on automated calf feeders. It allows the user to enter different scenarios, for example, calf group size and mortality rates can be varied to help determine how many feeders to install. We think this simple tool will help producers realize that groups of 10 to 15 calves are economically feasible. In addition, we continue to develop a website (calfconnection.umn.edu) focused primarily on calf management and automated calf feeder information that will continue to be populated with links, factsheets,and instructional videos or presentations. We expect this website will be a good calf information resource for dairy producers and advisors. If more producers can use automated calf feeding systems more successfully, other producers will be interested in installing them, therefore transitioning calves to a more natural group living. This will contribute to improved animal welfare, along with benefiting the dairy industry and meeting consumer demands.

Publications

Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Jorgensen, M.W., A. Adams-Progar, A. M. de Passille, J. Rushen, S. M. Godden,H. Chester-Jones,and M. I. Endres. 2017. Factors associated with dairy calf health in automated feeding systems in the upper Midwest United States. J. Dairy Sci.:in press
Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2017 Citation: Jorgensen, M.W., K. Janni, A. Adams-Progar, H. Chester-Jones, J. A. Salfer and M.I. Endres. 2017. Housing and management characteristics of dairy calf automated feeding systems in the Upper Midwest USA. J. Dairy Sci.:(under review)
Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Jorgensen, M. and M. I. Endres. 2016. Risk factors for calf mortality on farms using automated feeders in the Midwest USA. J. Dairy Sci. 99 (E-Suppl. 1):582.
Type: Book Chapters Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Endres, M. and B. James. 2016. Facility systems for the young dairy calf: Implications for animal welfare and labor management. Pg 62 in ADSA Large Dairy Herd Manag. Conf. Proc. Oak Brook, IL. Available from www.adsa.org/meetings/largedairyherdmanagement.aspx
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Endres, M.I. 2016. Is automated calf feeding right for your farm? WCDS Advances in Dairy Technology 28: 233-241.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Endres, M. 2016. Automated calf feeders: What makes them work? Four-State Dairy Nutrition and Management Conference, pg 51-54.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Endres, M.I. 2016. Raising Quality Dairy Calves Key factors for automated calf feeders. UW-Extension.

Progress 02/15/15 to 02/14/16

Outputs
Target Audience:Dairy producers, consultants, veterinarians, students, scientists, extension educators, governmental organizations. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Presentation and producer panel about automated calf feeders at the Minnesota Milk Producers Association Dairy Expo, December 2nd, 2015 in St. Cloud, MN. Good discussion and interaction. Dr. Endres and two dairy producers all emphasized the importance of clean equipment, nipples, hoses and milk. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Complete the analysis of factors influencing mortality. Summarize and characterize treatment rates and practices. Develop website and economic analysis spreadsheet.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? High on-farm calf mortality represents an economic loss for the dairy producer, but it also represents a major animal welfare problem. Consumers expect that the animal products they consume are derived from animals that lived a good life under human care. For calves, having a good life includes the ability to interact and socialize with other calves at a young age, which helps develop their cognitive function and allows them to express natural play behaviors. Our project aims to develop best management practices for calves housed in groups at a young age and fed with automated feeders. These practices will result in calves that are healthy, therefore reducing calf mortality, and give them a good life. Healthy calves grow into healthy, productive and more efficient adult cows, helping to improve the environmental and economic sustainability of the dairy industry in the U.S. If we can maintain health in a group setting, we will meet the three criteria for good welfare - health and functioning, natural behavior, and affective state. What we learned so far in our study is that some housing and management factors can significantly influence health of dairy calves housed with automated feeding systems. These factors include group size, square footage per calf, barn ventilation rate, how soon calves are allowed to reach the maximum amount of milk per day, and the bacterial count of the milk they are fed. We observed a wide variation in milk bacterial count across farms, as not all producers were necessarily implementing important cleaning procedures. Because the feeding system is automated, some might not have been aware of the importance of routine and thorough cleaning of the equipment, hoses, and niples, to result in a high quality, clean milk fed to the calves. We have been disseminating this information via webinars, publications, and one on one conversations, as it appears to be key to make these systems work. If more producers start using these automated systems more successfully, others will be interested in transitioning calves to a more natural group living and this will contribute to improved animal welfare, along with benefiting the dairy industry.

Publications

Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Jorgensen, M., A.Adams Progar, K. Janni, H.Chester-Jones, J. Salfer, and M.Endres. 2015. Housing and management practices on farms using automated calf feeders in the Midwestern United States. J. Dairy Sci. 98, Suppl 2:818.
Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Jorgensen, M., A.Adams Progar, S.Godden, H.Chester-Jones, A. M. de Passill�, J.Rushen, and M.Endres. 2015. Risk factors for abnormal calf health scores on farms using automated feeders in the Midwest USA. J. Dairy Sci. 98, Suppl 2:819.
Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Endres, M. 2015. Dairy welfare, management and behavior. Sustainable ethical practices. Intern. Innovation 189:69-71.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Endres, M. 2015. Automated calf feeders and robotic milking: What are keys to success? Pg 126-132 in Proc. Precision Dairy Conference and Expo, Rochester, MN, June 2015, http://www.precisiondairyfarming.com/2015.

Progress 02/15/14 to 02/14/15

Outputs
Target Audience: Dairy producers, dairy industry professsionals, extension educators, researchers, students. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Preliminary results were presented at the annual ADSA meetings in Kansas City, the 6th International Workshop on Animal Welfare at Farm and Group Level in Clermont-Ferrant, France and the annual Four-State Dairy Nutrition and Management Conference in Dubuque. Various consultations with dairy producers interested in building automated calf feeder facilities were handled by PD and her PhD student. A story was written by the Star Tribune, a local newspaper and distributed by various media internet sites. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Continue data analysis and summarization, write manuscripts, present project results, develop website - complete the project.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? On farm data collection was completed in 2014 and data summarization and analysis is ongoing. Materials are being collected for the development of the Dairy Calf Connection website. Meetings with members of the research team took place throughout the year for input on the project. Conference articles were written.

Publications

Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Jorgensen, M., A. Adams Progar, S. Godden, H. Chester-Jones, J. Rushen, A. M. de Passille, and M. I. Endres. 2014. Health of dairy calves when using automated feeders in the Midwest United States. J. Dairy Sci. 97, E-Suppl. 1:18.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Jorgensen, M., A. Adams-Progar, A.M. de Passille, J. Rushen, S. Godden, M. Endres. 2014. Variation in health of dairy calves when using automated feeders in the USA. Pg 222 in Proc. 6th Int. Conf. on the Assessment of Animal Welfare at Farm and Group Level, Clermont-Ferrand, France, Sept. 2 to 5, 2014. Wageningen Academic Publ.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: M. Endres. 2014. Automated calf feeder study update. Pg 93 in Proc. 2014 Four-State Dairy Nutrition and Management Conference, Dubuque, IA, June 2014.

Progress 02/15/13 to 02/14/14

Outputs
Target Audience: Dairy producers and other dairy industry professionals, students. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Training of a PhD graduate student, who has a MSc in animal welfare and behavior (but not dairy) and research associate who has a PhD in animal welfare. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Preliminary results of the study were presented by the PD at the Precision Dairy International Conference in June 2013 and a poster during the NIFA meeting in October. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? We will continue on-farm data collection (to be completed April 2013) and summarize data to complete objectives 3 and 4. Extension materials will be developed.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Objectives 1 and 2 are in progress. A graduate student and a research associate were hired in August 2012 to perform data collection for the study. Training and protocol development was done August-October and and on farm data collection was initiated in November of 2012. Six cohorts have been completed with the 7th cohort is in progress. We identified and enrolled 38 dairy operations in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa that are using automated calf feeders to feed milk or milk replacer to their calves. Results for microbiological analysis of milk/milk replacer and calf health scores have been shared with the collaborating farms and presented at a conference.

Publications

Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Endres, M.I. 2013. Management and housing of automated calf feeders in the Midwest US. In Proc. Precision Dairy Conference and Expo, pp. 97. Rochester, MN.

Progress 02/15/12 to 02/14/13

Outputs
Target Audience: During this reporting period, we are collecting on farm data from 36 dairy operations in Minnesota, Wisconsin and NE Iowa. No preliminary results have been presented yet, except during the Principal Investigator NIFA meeting in December 2012. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Training of graduate student, who has a MSc in animal welfare and behavior (but not dairy) and research associate who has a PhD in animal welfare. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Continue on farm data collection and summarization. Present prelimary results at an international Precision Dairy Conference. Start development of extension web page - Calf Connection.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Objectives 1 and 2 are in progress. A graduate student and a research associate were hired in August 2012 to perform data collection for the study. Training and protocol development was done August-October and and on farm data collection was initiated in November of 2012. Two cohorts have been completed with the 3rd cohort in progress. We identified and enrolled 36 dairy operations in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa that are using automated calf feeders to feed milk or milk replacer to their calves. Meetings with other members of the team were very helpful in protocol development. Some of the team members visited a few of the research sites along with PD and research personnel to provide better input on protocol development (Janni, Rushen, De Passille).

Publications