Deliverable 2.1 Keeping cow and calf together – impacts on animal performances, behaviour, welfare and farm economy (INRAE, SLU)

Summary

The most promising practices allowing cow-calf contact (CCC) identified in the surveys made at an EU scale
in WP1 were implemented in on-farm trials in FR and SE. The goals were to quantify the consequences of
CCC practices on cows’ milk production and composition, reproductive performance, changes in body
weight and condition, health and stress at weaning as well as calves’ weight gains, health and stress at
weaning. In all trials the CCC practices were compared against a control method (where cows and calves
are separated within 24 h after birth) in the same herd. Finally, the ultimate goal was to estimate the
labour demand for the different CCC practices as well as their economic consequences.
This deliverable reports the main results obtained in the experiments made in France and in Sweden.