The impact of early life nutrition and housing on growth and reproduction in dairy cattle

Abstract

Contentious issues in calf rearing include milk feeding practices and single versus group housing. The current study was performed on a high producing 170 Holstein cow dairy farm, to investigate the impact of nutrition and housing on growth and reproduction. Heifer calves (n = 100) were allocated in birth order to one of two commonly used management strategies. All calves received 3�4 litres of dam specific colostrum within 6 hours of birth.