Adoption of optimal management techniques for rearing dairy calves has significant effects on their health, welfare, and productivity. Despite much published literature on best practice, calf morbidity and mortality rates remain high. This survey aimed to establish current calf management practices in the United Kingdom, along with farmer perceptions surrounding different housing types. A survey containing 48 questions was distributed online to UK farmers via social media, online forums, and a convenience sample of veterinary practices and was completed by 216 participants. A descriptive analysis with frequency distributions was calculated, with chi-squared tests, linear regression and multinomial regression performed to assess associations between variables. There was a low level of regular veterinary involvement in day-to-day health decision making for calves (3/216, 1.4%), highlighting the need for appropriate staff training and standard operating procedures to ensure prudent antimicrobial usage. Restricted calf milk feeding remains highly prevalent in the United Kingdom, with most calves fed milk replacer (114/216, 52.8%), twice daily (189/216, 87.5%), initially given milk at 4 L/d (66/216, 30.6%) or 6 L/d (47/216, 21.8%). There was, however, a small number of farmers initially feeding only 2 to 3 L/d (28/216, 13.0%). Euthanasia of bull calves (5/216, 2.3%) and feeding antimicrobial waste milk to calves (8/216, 3.7%) both occurred on some farms. With regard to housing, use of individual calf pens has reduced from around 60% in 2010 to 38.4% in this study (83/216), with this reduction being partly driven by the policy of UK milk buyers. Farmer perceptions indicated that individual housing was thought to help to improve calf health and feed monitoring of calves, suggesting that successful use of group housing requires a higher level of stockmanship. The majority of farmers did not provide fresh bedding to calves on a daily basis (141/216, 65.3%), and relatively few disinfected both the calf housing (38.0%) and ground (47.7%) between calves, suggesting that hygiene practices may require additional attention in farm management protocols.

During this study we explored the gait attributes commonly used in subjective locomotion scoring systems and use new technology to evaluate these gait attributes objectively on 60 Holstein lactating dairy cattle. Kinematic gait analysis more commonly used in sports and equine science was adapted for use on dairy cattle to assess stride characteristics, joint flexion, and spine posture in dairy cows with different lameness status. Cows that were lame had shorter stride length and had negative tracking distance compared with nonlame cattle. Lame cattle did not show any difference in spine posture when walking. Gait alterations were more evident in cows with sole ulcers, which showed considerable shortening of stride and had more negative tracking compared with cows with no hoof lesions. Cows with sole ulcers also showed significant shortening of the spine when walking than cows with no hoof lesions.

Housing management of dairy calves is one of the factors that contributes to a successful rearing outcome. Individual housing of pre-weaned calves is thought to provide enhanced biosecurity and easier monitoring of the individual, and so remains prevalent in the UK. Behavioural studies have, however, found that pair housing is important for social learning, with positive impacts on health and welfare. This study utilised a single UK commercial dairy farm to establish if individual housing, pair housing from birth, or pair housing from three weeks of age affected health and behavioural parameters. Calves were housed in these allocated groups from birth to eight weeks of age, when they were moved into group pens of five calves for weaning at 10 weeks of age. All management routines other than the housing group were the same for enrolled calves. One hundred Holstein calves were recruited over a six-month period, and systematically allocated to a housing group. Weekly visits were conducted up to 10 weeks of age (weaning) for each calf, with weight, solid feed intake, and presence of clinical disease measured. In addition, a novel object approach test was carried out at six weeks, and a thoracic ultrasound was performed at seven weeks. Housing group had no effect on the average daily liveweight gain (ADLG) (p = 0.74), with an average of 0.66 kg/day over the pre-weaning period. However, on group housing at 8–10 weeks of age, there was a numerical increase in ADLG in the pair housed calves compared to the individually housed calves over the weaning period. Housing group had no significant effect on disease prevalence (p = 0.98) or the time taken to approach the novel object (p = 0.29). However, pair housed calves had increased mean total solid feed intakes from weeks 2–8 (p = 0.011), with 6.2 ± 0.67 kg (standard error of the mean—SEM), 12.7 ± 0.73 kg and 13.6 ± 0.70 kg ingested by individually housed, pair housed from birth and pair housed from three weeks of age, respectively. The overall findings of this study indicate that within a UK commercial dairy management system, there is no detrimental effect of housing calves within pairs (either from birth or three weeks of age) compared to individual housing.

Thirty-five lactating Jersey cows were recruited to the study. They were grouped according to locomotion score (LS), where low scores indicate normal gait. LS-1 (n = 12), LS-2 (n = 12) and LS-3 (n = 11) were used. Locomotion scores were balanced for parity and stage of lactation. Lying behaviour was recorded using IceTag™ data loggers attached to the cows for four consecutive days. The study animals remained in the straw based yards with grooved concrete flooring throughout the duration of the study. All data were normally distributed and assessed using a one-way ANOVA with a post hoc Tukey test. There were no statistically significant differences between locomotion score and the time spent lying, active and standing of zero-grazed lactating Jersey dairy cattle housed on straw yards. Lame cows (LS-3) had significantly shorter lying bouts than sound cows (LS-1) (34 min vs. 42 min, respectively). There has been limited research to date measuring the lying behaviour of cattle on straw and into the Jersey breed. The cows had longer than expected standing times and an increased frequency of lying bouts. This may have been attributed to the stocking density in which the cows were kept. We also reported a prevalence of lameness within the herd of 38%.