Behavior of dairy heifers after increasing the amounts of milk replacer powder added to whole milk

The objective of this work was to evaluate the effects of increasing the contents of total solids (TS) in whole milk, by adding increasing amounts of milk replacer powder, on the behavior of dairy heifers. Holstein-Gyr crossbred heifers (n = 60) were distributed in four treatments: 13.5, 16.1, 18.2, and 20.4% TS. From 5 to 55 days of age, heifers received 6 L per day of liquid feed, which was reduced by half from 56 to 59 days. Heifers were weaned at 60 days of age and monitored until 90 days, and their behavior was evaluated weekly. During gradual weaning and after weaning, heifer behavior was recorded 1 hour before and 1 hour after liquid feed was offered, and, during weaning, it was evaluated by the scan method. Heifers fed liquid feed containing 20.4% TS present a higher number of play behaviors, spent less time standing, and spent more time ruminating than those that received liquid feed with 13.5% TS, indicating that a higher nutritional plan during weaning is an effective strategy to reduce stress in this period.

Index terms:
stress; vocalization; weaning

Authorship

Sâmara Raiany de Almeida Rufino

Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Escola de Veterinária, Departamento de Zootecnia, Campus Pampulha, Avenida Antônio Carlos, no 6.627, Caixa Postal 567, CEP 31270-901 Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil. E-mail: samara_raiany@yahoo.com.br, rafaelzooufmg@gmail.com, vet.pamelafurini@gmail.com, sandragesteiracoelho@gmail.comUniversidade Federal de Minas GeraisBrazilBelo Horizonte, MG, BrazilUniversidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Escola de Veterinária, Departamento de Zootecnia, Campus Pampulha, Avenida Antônio Carlos, no 6.627, Caixa Postal 567, CEP 31270-901 Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil. E-mail: samara_raiany@yahoo.com.br, rafaelzooufmg@gmail.com, vet.pamelafurini@gmail.com, sandragesteiracoelho@gmail.com

http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0502-2906

Rafael Alves de Azevedo

http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9159-6871

Pamela Michéli Furini

http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4436-0329

Mariana Magalhães Campos

Embrapa Gado de Leite, Rua Eugênio do Nascimento, no 610, Dom Bosco, CEP 36038-330 Juiz de Fora, MG, Brazil. E-mail: mariana.campos@embrapa.br, fernanda.machado@embrapa.br, maria.pires@embrapa.br, julianamello85@gmail.comEmbrapa Gado de LeiteBrazilJuiz de Fora, MG, BrazilEmbrapa Gado de Leite, Rua Eugênio do Nascimento, no 610, Dom Bosco, CEP 36038-330 Juiz de Fora, MG, Brazil. E-mail: mariana.campos@embrapa.br, fernanda.machado@embrapa.br, maria.pires@embrapa.br, julianamello85@gmail.com

http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5332-6010

Fernanda Samarini Machado

http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7380-4961

Maria de Fátima Avila Pires

http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1186-3018

Juliana Aparecida Mello Lima

http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9564-7397

Sandra Gesteira Coelho ^**Corresponding author: sandragesteiracoelho@gmail.com

http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1159-6797

*Corresponding author: sandragesteiracoelho@gmail.com

SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Tables

Tables (6)

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Table 1.
Ethogram of the evaluated behavior activities.

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Table 2.
Mean values for number of play activities (PLY), vocalizations (VOC), sucks to hutch or utensils (SHU), licks to the hutch or utensils (LHU), self-licks (SLI), visits to the water bucket (VWB), urinations (URI), and defecations (DEF) by dairy heifers fed liquid feed with different total solids contents between week 2 and 13 of age⁽¹⁾.

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Table 3.
Mean values for number of play activities (PLY), vocalizations (VOC), sucks to hutch or utensils (SHU), licks to the hutch or utensils (LHU), self-licks (SLI), visits to the water bucket (VWB), urinations (URI), and defecations (DEF) by dairy heifers fed liquid feed with different total solids contents between week 2 and 13 of age, according to the evaluated week⁽¹⁾.

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Table 4.
Mean values for number of play activities (PLY), vocalizations (VOC), sucks to hutch or utensils (SHU), licks to the hutch or utensils (LHU), self-licks (SLI), visits to the water bucket (VWB), urinations (URI), and defecations (DEF) during the weaning of dairy heifers fed liquid feed with different total solids contents⁽¹⁾.

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Table 5.
Scan average duration (min) for the behaviors termed standing (STD), lying (LYI), inside the hutch (INT), outside the hutch (EXT), eating forage (FOR), visiting the starter trough (STA), idle (IDL), and rumination (RUM) during the weaning of dairy heifers fed liquid feed with different total solids contents⁽¹⁾.

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Table 6.
Mean time (min) of behavior inside the hutch (INT), visiting the starter trough (STA), and outside the hutch (EXT), as well as number of vocalizations (VOC), during the weaning of dairy heifers fed liquid feed with different total solids contents.

Table 1. Ethogram of the evaluated behavior activities.

Behavior	Description
Behavior evaluated by frequency of occurrence
Play	Running, galloping, bucking, or jumping
Vocalization	Emitting a sound
Sucking hutch or utensils	Sucking at hutch structure or at starter/water buckets
Licking hutch or utensils	Licking hutch structure or starter/water buckets continuously
Self-licking	Licking own body continuously while standing or lying
Visiting water bucket	Placing head inside the water bucket located inside the hutch
Urination	Urinating inside or outside the hutch
Defecation	Defecating inside or outside the hutch
Behavior evaluated by the scan sampling method
Standing	Supported by the four limbs, inside or outside the hutch
Lying	In lateral or sternal recumbency, inside or outside the hutch
Remaining inside hutch	Inside the hutch, standing or lying
Remaining outside hutch	Outside the hutch, standing or lying
Eating forage	Eating forage inside or outside the hutch
Visiting silage trough	Placing head inside the silage trough located outside the hutch and displaying chewing movements suggesting silage ingestion
Visiting starter trough	Placing head inside the trough located inside the hutch and displaying chewing movements suggesting starter ingestion
Rumination	Displaying repeated chewing movements after the return of the cud
Idleness	Not ruminating at the moment of evaluation

Table 2. Mean values for number of play activities (PLY), vocalizations (VOC), sucks to hutch or utensils (SHU), licks to the hutch or utensils (LHU), self-licks (SLI), visits to the water bucket (VWB), urinations (URI), and defecations (DEF) by dairy heifers fed liquid feed with different total solids contents between week 2 and 13 of age⁽¹⁾.

Behavior	Treatments (percentage of total solids in whole milk)				SEM⁽²⁾	p-value
Behavior	13.5	16.1	18.2	20.4	SEM⁽²⁾	Treatment	Weeks
PLY	2.6	2.5	2.8	2.7	0.10	0.88	0.01
VOC	7.7A	6.0AB	5.2B	7.0AB	0.51	0.02	0.01
SHU	3.4	2.5	1.9	2.7	0.10	0.08	0.01
LHU	9.2AB	7.3B	8.9AB	9.4A	0.32	0.01	0.01
SLI	25.9B	26.6AB	24.2B	31.5A	0.65	0.01	0.01
VWB	3.7	3.5	3.8	3.7	0.17	0.27	0.01
URI	3.4	3.0	3.4	3.2	0.08	0.21	0.01
DEF	1.9B	2.4A	2.1AB	2.3A	0.06	0.01	0.01

⁽¹⁾Means followed by different letters, in the rows, differ by Dunn’s multiple comparison test, at 5% probability. ⁽²⁾Standard error of the mean.

Table 3. Mean values for number of play activities (PLY), vocalizations (VOC), sucks to hutch or utensils (SHU), licks to the hutch or utensils (LHU), self-licks (SLI), visits to the water bucket (VWB), urinations (URI), and defecations (DEF) by dairy heifers fed liquid feed with different total solids contents between week 2 and 13 of age, according to the evaluated week⁽¹⁾.

Week	Behavior
Week	PLY	VOC	SHU	LHU	SLI	VWB	URI	DEF
2	3.6AB	6.3B	0.7B	5.5B	17.9C	2.8BC	2.0C	2.8AB
3	5.8A	10.4AB	2.5AB	7.5B	25.7B	3.3BC	3.0B	1.8BC
4	5.1A	6.5B	3.9AB	6.9B	27.7AB	2.1C	3.4AB	1.7C
5	4.6AB	6.6B	3.4AB	8.7AB	28.0AB	2.3C	3.5AB	1.8C
6	3.8AB	5.6B	3.6AB	12.0A	28.0AB	3.4BC	3.7AB	1.7C
7	3.8AB	5.9B	4.1A	11.6A	34.5A	3.2BC	3.4AB	1.6C
8	2.1BC	10.1AB	4.6A	12.3A	35.0A	2.9BC	3.3B	1.6C
9	0.5D	21.0A	2.1AB	12.6A	33.2AB	4.1AB	2.6BC	2.2AB
10	0.4D	1.7BC	3.2AB	9.7AB	24.3BC	4.9A	2.4BC	2.3AB
11	0.9CD	0.5C	1.6B	6.1B	22.3BC	4.8AB	3.2B	2.8A
12	0.5D	0.4C	1.1B	4.6B	22.2BC	5.4A	4.0AB	2.7AB
13	0.9CD	0.6C	0.5B	6.5B	26.2B	5.0A	4.5A	3.1A

⁽¹⁾Means followed by different letters, in the rows, differ by Dunn’s multiple comparison test, at 5% probability.

Table 4. Mean values for number of play activities (PLY), vocalizations (VOC), sucks to hutch or utensils (SHU), licks to the hutch or utensils (LHU), self-licks (SLI), visits to the water bucket (VWB), urinations (URI), and defecations (DEF) during the weaning of dairy heifers fed liquid feed with different total solids contents⁽¹⁾.

Behavior	Treatments (percentage of total solids in whole milk)				SEM⁽²⁾	p-value
Behavior	13.5	16.1	18.2	20.4	SEM⁽²⁾	Treatment	Weeks
PLY	0.02B	0.1AB	0.1AB	0.5A	0.07	0.01	0.11
VOC	6.6	11.1	7.5	8.7	0.45	0.35	0.01
SHU	0.8	1.1	0.5	1.2	0.06	0.10	0.10
LHU	2.6	2.5	2.0	3.1	0.39	0.46	0.62
SLI	9.0	11.4	7.6	10.7	0.71	0.09	0.45
VWB	2.0A	1.4A	1.3A	0.6B	0.19	0.01	0.05
URI	1.0	0.9	1.1	1.2	0.06	0.41	0.18
DEF	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.02	0.93	0.80

⁽¹⁾Means followed by different letters, in the rows, differ by Dunn’s multiple comparison test, at 5% probability. ⁽²⁾Standard error of the mean.

Table 5. Scan average duration (min) for the behaviors termed standing (STD), lying (LYI), inside the hutch (INT), outside the hutch (EXT), eating forage (FOR), visiting the starter trough (STA), idle (IDL), and rumination (RUM) during the weaning of dairy heifers fed liquid feed with different total solids contents⁽¹⁾.

Behavior	Treatments (percentage of total solids in whole milk)				SEM⁽²⁾	p-value⁽³⁾
Behavior	13.5	16.1	18.2	20.4	SEM⁽²⁾	T	W	T x W
STD⁽²⁾	83.0A	79.7AB	67.9BC	63.7C	2.32	0.02	0.09	0.20
LYI⁽³⁾	37.0C	40.3BC	52.1AB	56.3A	1.60	0.02	0.09	0.20
INT	21.7	23.4	20.5	20.4	1.10	0.87	0.01	0.81
EXT⁽⁴⁾	98.3	96.6	99.5	99.6	3.65	0.42	0.01	-
FOR	25.8	19.6	18.5	14.3	1.19	0.20	0.35	0.15
STA	6.2	6.2	5.7	5.5	0.92	0.88	0.01	0.13
IDL	82.2	87.1	87.6	88.0	2.36	0.76	0.32	0.26
RUM⁽⁴⁾	5.8B	7.1B	8.2AB	12.2A	0.89	0.01	0.14	-

⁽¹⁾Means followed by different letters, in the rows, differ between treatments by Tukey’s test, at 5% probability. ⁽²⁾Standard error of the mean. ⁽³⁾T, treatment effect; W, week effect; and T x W, treatment by week interaction.

Table 6. Mean time (min) of behavior inside the hutch (INT), visiting the starter trough (STA), and outside the hutch (EXT), as well as number of vocalizations (VOC), during the weaning of dairy heifers fed liquid feed with different total solids contents.

Behavior	Days
Behavior	56 days	57 days	58 days	59 days	60 days
INT⁽¹⁾	14.1±8.7C	18.4±11.5BC	21.4±12.3B	22.8±17.5B	32.0±21.4A
STA⁽¹⁾	3.2±3.1C	5.2±3.6B	6.6±4.7AB	6.3±4.3AB	8.3±5.4A
EXT⁽²⁾	1.8A	1.7AB	1.7BC	1.6BC	1.5C
VOC⁽²⁾	5.6C	11.2B	7.1B	5.9B	12.5A

⁽¹⁾Means followed by different letters, in the rows, differ by Tukey’s test, at 5% probability. ⁽²⁾Means followed by different letters, in the rows, differ by Dunn’s multiple comparison test by 5% probability.

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Behavior of dairy heifers after increasing the amounts of milk replacer powder added to whole milk

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[1] *Corresponding author: sandragesteiracoelho@gmail.com