A survey of dairy calf management practices in some producing regions in Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: Santos,Glauber dos
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Outros Autores: Bittar,Carla Maris Machado
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Revista Brasileira de Zootecnia (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-35982015001000361
• topic: colostrum; raising system; transfer of passive immunity; weaning

ABSTRACTThis study aimed to characterize the Brazilian dairy calves raising systems through a survey of major aspects of animal husbandry. One hundred seventy-nine producers and/or technicians were interviewed. The questionnaire addressed issues related to the management of the dry cow and the newborn, nutritional management of the liquid-feeding phase, housing, and health management. A third of newborn calves stay with their mothers for more than 24 h after delivery, and only 56% of the calves receive colostrum within the first 8 h of life. Four out of ten producers allow the calf to suckle colostrum directly from the mother. Regarding the liquid diet, 44 and 35% of the farms provide marketable milk and discard milk for the calves, respectively. It was possible to identify several areas of improvement in the raising system; for instance, greater attention could be given to dry cows and the monitoring of births and to the establishment of adequate protocols to evaluate colostrum quality and feeding management.