Hayer, Jason Jeremia: Improving animal welfare on dairy farms with special emphasis on calf management. - Bonn, 2022. - Dissertation, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn.
Online-Ausgabe in bonndoc: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hbz:5-66945
@phdthesis{handle:20.500.11811/9875,
urn: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hbz:5-66945,
author = {{Jason Jeremia Hayer}},
title = {Improving animal welfare on dairy farms with special emphasis on calf management},
school = {Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn},
year = 2022,
month = jun,

note = {Livestock welfare, including dairy cows and calves, has gained importance for society, politics, and agriculture over the last decades. Providing kept animals with a high level of animal welfare requires the implementation of scientific recommendations and husbandry standards affecting dairy cow and calf welfare, on top of the minimum standards set by law. In this regard, it is essential to better understand the decision-making process of animal keepers, as they ultimately have the most significant impact on the welfare of their animals. Accordingly, this thesis aimed at investigating the implementation of management recommendations for calf husbandry on dairy farms, at deriving recommendations for management aspects that have been neglected so far, at analyzing the relationship between the attitude of animal keepers and animal welfare management, and at evaluating the applicability of animal welfare self-assessments in calf husbandry. Management recommendations and animal welfare indicators were derived from the literature and evaluated in interviews with livestock farmers and calf assessments (n > 800 calves). The evaluation of the farm management showed that many management recommendations have not been implemented yet. Furthermore, the stockpersons’ view on animal welfare was identified as a significant factor influencing the implementation of recommendations. In this thesis, it was found that wound lesions caused by legally required ear tagging are a prevalent animal welfare problem. Corresponding recommendations to minimize the risk of such lesions were derived. The implementation of animal welfare self-assessments could increase awareness of the performing livestock keepers to the described welfare aspects. Animal welfare indicators suitable for inclusion in self-assessments were evaluated. Furthermore, related influencing factors such as calf age or climatic conditions were analyzed to increase the reliability of welfare indicators. Evaluated behavioral assessments for self-assessment in calves were feasible but dependent on the time of day of the assessment and the person observing. In conclusion, the findings obtained in this thesis constitute further progress towards a reliable and practicable animal welfare assessment and thus towards an improvement in the welfare of dairy calves.},
url = {https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11811/9875}
}

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