The objectives of the project are to collect, to develop
and to assess natural feeding strategies increasing dairy livestock welfare
including health in different agro-ecological and regulatory European contexts.
This will be achieved by improving the rearing of calves pre-weaning and
designing forage based feeding strategies for heifers and adult cows, both
fostering the animal’s immune status and reducing the use of antibiotics and
anthelmintics without negative impacts on animal performance and farm economy.
The project with partners from eight European countries investigates the follwoing hypotheses with German participation:
(i) replacement calves benefit from increased milk amounts in terms of welfare and performance, (ii) hay feeding without silage in the feed ration has positive health effects. Moreover, the spectrum of existing calf rearing systems with foster cows or dams will be indetified in all eight participating countries and their legal and economic framework compared.