Reactions of calves to handling depend on housing condition and previous experience with humans

This study investigated the influence of stockperson's behaviour and housin g conditions on calves' behavioural reactions to people, and behavioural an d physiological reactions to handling and short transport, Sixty-four Finni sh Ayrshire male calves were used; half of them were housed in individual p ens, the other half were housed in group pens of two calves. In both housin g conditions half of the calves received minimal contact from the stockpers on, while the other half were stroked on their necks acid shoulders fur 90 s a day, after milk meals. The effects of housing and contact with the stoc kperson on the responses of calves to people, either entering or approachin g the pen, were studied. Furthermore, calves' behavioural and physiological (cortisol, heart rate) reactions to being loaded onto a truck, transported for 30 min and unloaded were observed. When a person entered the home pen, calves housed by pairs took significantly more time to interact and intera cted less frequently with the person than individually housed calves did (p < 0.01), Calves that received additional contact interacted for longer tim e with the unfamiliar person than calves with minimal contact (p = 0.02). W hen a person approached the front of the calves' pens, less withdrawal resp onses were shown by calves that had received additional contact (p < 0.05) than those that had received minimal contact, When the calves were loaded o nto the truck, it took more time and effort to load pair housed calves than individually housed calves (p < 0.01) and less effort to load calves that had received additional contact (p < 0.01) compared to those that had recei ved minimal contact. During loading additional contact calves had lower hea rt rates (p < 0.05) than those that had received minimal contact, while dur ing transport pair housed calves had lower heart rates compared to individu ally housed ones (p < 0.05). For all the observations performed, no interac tions were found between housing conditions and human contact. It is concluded that, compared to calves housed individually, calves housed in pairs are less ready to approach humans and less easy to handle. Provid ing calves with regular positive contacts makes them less fearful of people and improves handling. Due to thr greater difficulty in handling calves ho used in groups, it is concluded that these animals need to have regular con tact with humans. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.