Suckling systems in calf rearing in organic dairy farming in the Netherlands

In an on-farm experiment three calf rearing methods were compared: bucket feeding of milk replacer, bucket feeding of tank milk and suckling of mother or nurse cow up to three months of age. Aim was to determine whether the technical results of suckling systems in calf rearing were satisfactory. Calves reared in a suckling system reached significantly higher liveweights at weaning (90 days). Although the average growth rate between weaning and the age of 1 year did not differ significantly, liveweight at 1 year did still differ significantly. Compared to both bucket fed rearing groups, suckling did not have a significant effect on Somatic Cell Count (SCC) of mothers. Suckling systems in calf rearing in organic dairy production show satisfactory technical results. Calves have the potential to grow fast and no negative effect of suckling on SCC or general animal health were observed

Practical implications of increasing 'natural living' through suckling systems in organic dairy calf rearing

The introduction of suckling systems in organic dairy calf rearing has the potential to enhance animal welfare in terms of ‘natural living’ and to live up to consumers’ expectations about organic agriculture. This study describes the implications of suckling systems in a practical organic dairy context. Results show that farmers can successfully develop and implement a suckling system in calf rearing. The consumption of mothers’ milk resulted in high weaning weights at 3 months of age. No immediate animal health problems linked to suckling systems occurred. Compared with traditional bucket feeding of milk, suckling systems resulted in increased natural behaviour such as calf cow bonding, natural sucking behaviour and care-taking behaviour. Some farmers had difficulties accepting negative implications of suckling systems such as stress after weaning and loss of marketable milk. Although suckling of the own mother was seen as the most natural suckling system, farmers adapted their suckling system to calves suckling nurse cows. In order to implement successfully a suckling system, farmers have to step back from control and give calf and cow a chance. In the case of increasing ‘natural living’ through implementation of a suckling system, farmers should be encouraged to take enough time to accomplish this attitude change

Suckling as an alternative rearing system for replacement calves on dairy farms

The aim is to develop an alternative calf rearing system for replacement calves that will improve animal welfare on dairy farms and meets the requirements of farmers in terms of practicality and cost. On the dairy farms that make use of a suckling system are calves suckled by their mother or a nurse cow, for a duration that ranges from three days up to three months. Compared to artificial calf rearing, suckling systems are beneficial to the welfare of calves. The calves will be nursed by their mother, suckled with milk, learn to eat roughage at a younger age, have social contact with other calves and cows and have space enough to exercise and play

Suckling systems in calf rearing in organic dairy farming in the Netherlands

In an on-farm experiment three calf rearing methods were compared: bucket feeding of milk replacer, bucket feeding of tank milk and suckling of mother or nurse cow up to three months of age. Aim was to determine whether the technical results of suckling systems in calf rearing were satisfactory. Calves reared in a suckling system reached significantly higher liveweights at weaning (90 days). Although the average growth rate between weaning and the age of 1 year did not differ significantly, liveweight at 1 year did still differ significantly. Compared to both bucket fed rearing groups, suckling did not have a significant effect on Somatic Cell Count (SCC) of mothers. Suckling systems in calf rearing in organic dairy production show satisfactory technical results. Calves have the potential to grow fast and no negative effect of suckling on SCC or general animal health were observed

Rearing calves with cows: Nature works!

One of the objectives of the research project "Cows with calves" ('Kalveren bij de Koe') is to develop a rearing method that gives the natural bond between mother cow and calf a function. At the same time the rearing method also needs to be financially and practically viable. In order to assess the applicability of rearing cows with calves a wide range of parameters was monitored: liveweight development of calves, behaviour of animals that suckle or suckled as a calf, milk production, calf milk consumption and animal health. These data and experiences were used to try and define the best conditions for rearing cows with calves

Focus groups of value concepts of producers: National Report Netherlands

The Organic Revision project was funded by the EU with the aim of supporting the further development of the EU Regulation 2092/91 on organic production. As part of the project focus groups were run in five European countries on value concepts of organic producers and other stakeholders, during 2004-2005. The project aims to provide an overview of values held among organic stakeholders, and of similarities and differences among the various national and private organic standards. In the Netherlands four focus groups were held, one pre-test with researchers, and three groups with established organic producers both of livestock and horticulture. It was not possible to recruit any newly converted producers to a meeting in the Netherlands. The following conclusions were reached: Summarising the values in the words of the participants of these focus groups, organic agriculture could be defined as follows: "Organic agriculture is about producing endlessly, with care and respect for humans, animals, plants and soil. Organic farmers produce healthy and tasty food without harming the environment or the development of others. Their farms and agriculture in general are inter-connected with small and big world problems." Overall there seem to be many similarities between the groups. Values related to all principles were discussed in all the groups; the differences observed were related to the different backgrounds. The researchers spoke about their own experiences from work but also about their ideas from a consumer’s point of view. For the dairy farmers animal welfare was an important value while soil was more important to the arable farmers. Also with regard to the values nearness and proximity, differences between arable and dairy farmers seemed to reflect their daily practice. Arable farmers are faced with an anonymous market, with high and changing quality standards of the trade, and regard local production and consumption as a solution to their problems. The other groups of farmers also support this quest for another economic system. The researchers mention the unrealistic ideas of consumers concerning organic agriculture and they wonder how to make consumers more aware. The farmers would like to educate the consumer more, also about the relation of production in their country compared with production and development elsewhere. The farmers see the inter-connectedness of agriculture with income and development in developing countries very clearly and for some this was an important argument to convert. The farmers have a great feeling of responsibility for the world (ecologically and socially). For all of them the intentions are more important than the norms. On the basis of the coding, it appears that values in relation to three principles were most important in the discussion. These are the ecology principle, holism and systems approach and professional pride, in order of importance. The following values were mentioned in relation to the principle of ecology: Recycling (the cycle) and saving energy were of major importance and nature conservation or nature integration on the farm was an important aim for some farmers. Co-operation between arable and animal production is seen as a very important means to close the cycle. And in the Netherlands with far going specialisation of farms this is sometimes a real challenge. Conflicts with the economy easily arise but also conflicts with national legislation restrict the farmers in their development. The values itself are not experienced as restricting. All groups except for the arable farmers see a combination and balance of all principles as important in the future. Arable farmers see the soil as most important and other values as complementary. All groups of experienced farmers were worried about new converters, who seem to stick to the minimum values, as a threat to their profession. All participants seem to have the feeling to be part of the good guys and are being recognised by society in that way. They are proud of their profession and the sector. For the continuation of the sector a clear distinction from conventional agriculture is needed, but they are not afraid that conventional moves in the direction of organic. For the future, steady development and growth is preferred above fast growth. Others should also get the chance and time to develop in the way they did, but the new converters should not decrease the credibility of organic. Therefore, acceptable minimum rules should do justice to the values held by the sector as a whole

Addressing Ash: Rituals of translation and grief in Anne Carson’s Nox

This project investigates the activities of translation and mourning as ritual acts in Anne Carson’s Nox, a multimedia poem including a translation and reception of Catullus’s poem 101. Carson, as a literary critic and poet, as well as a classicist and translator, uses multimodal strategies of addressing the tensions between social rituals of mourning and intimate grief by making translation an allegory for the grieving process. Through Nox, I inspect a number of interrelated tensions between emotional interior and expressed exterior as finely controlled in both form and content. By using a culturally embedded, referential elegiac form to put a very particular “frame around” unbounded personal grief, Carson demonstrates that grieving is “akin” to history and translation, as they are motivated by the same rituals. Nox began, almost a decade before its publication, as a personal scrapbook that reconstructs Carson’s brother Michael. Its pages are an uncanny reproduction—a Xerox—of that original book, ink bleed and all. It is an intensely personal document serving a quite public purpose—to share, to engage, and to openly grieve a person lost. The tensions between what one feels and how one can share it are introduced by the act of its publication. This paper describes those ways in which Carson chose to represent and enact these tensions and induces the reader to perform this grieving. The turn to classical precedent is a poetic tool that implicates the ways in which humans deal with the irrational, the painful, the traumatic and the irreducible. Translating 101, an elegy to someone else’s brother, tears at our understandings of personal grief and classical translation at their seams

Suckling as rearing method on dairy farms: The effect on farm system aspects of two dairy farms in the Netherlands

Maternal behaviour, interactions and contact between cow and calf is limited or absent in modern dairy production due to the widely use of artificial calf rearing. Introduction of suckling on a dairy farm has effects on many aspects such as calf growth, animal health, milk production, rearing costs, behaviour, welfare and naturalness etc. In a pilot study on two farms the effect of suckling systems on calf growth and milk production of dairy cows was assessed. Furthermore, the development of naturalness on the case study farms was described, as well as the motivation, for the use of suckling as rearing method, of seven farmers