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Effects of habituation to the milking parlour on production, health and fertility of Norwegian and Holstein dairy herd replacements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2017

H.C.F. Wicks ,
A.F. Carson  and
M.A. McCoy
H.C.F. Wicks
Affiliation:
Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland, Hillsborough, Co. Down, BT26 6DR
A.F. Carson
Affiliation:
Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland, Hillsborough, Co. Down, BT26 6DR
M.A. McCoy
Affiliation:
Veterinary Sciences Division, Stoney Road, Belfast, BT4 3SD
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Extract

During the transition period (defined as three weeks prior to calving to three weeks post-calving) heifers are exposed to physiological, nutritional, management, and social changes as they enter the dairy herd. One obvious change is the introduction of heifers to the milking parlour. Previous work has shown that when mature cows were milked in unfamiliar surroundings, milk yield, milk flow rate and milking duration were affected due to increased stress (Rushens, et al. 2001). The objective of the current study was to investigate the effects of habituating heifers to the milking parlour pre-calving on the subsequent performance of Holstein-Friesian and Norwegian dairy herd replacements.

Type
ISAE
Information
Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Science , Volume 2003 , 2003 , pp. 26
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Science 2003

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References

Rushen, J., Munksgaard, L., Marnet, P.G. and DePassille, A.M., 2001. Human contact and the effect of acute stress on cows at milking. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 73: 1–14.Google Scholar