Long-term effect of housing method during the first three months of life on human-animal relationship in female dairy cattle

The effect of housing during the first three months of life till the end of the first lactation on the human-animal relationship and milk production w as examined in an experiment with four treatments of 20 female dairy calves each. For the first 12 weeks of their lives, the calves were housed in eit her open single pens (SOpen) or closed single pens (SClosed), in groups of five calves (GCalf) or in groups of five cows and calves (GCow). Calves hou sed in a closed single pen approached humans more than calves housed in an open single pen. There was no difference in the ease of handling. The human -animal relationship was not affected by type of housing. Calves housed in groups of calves and cows sought less human contact, but were not difficult to handle. Milk production was not affected by housing method during early rearing. Therefore, group housing, which allows full socialization with ot her animals and involves better welfare than individual housing, can be rec ommended, as no negative effect was found on later handling and milking.