En jämförande studie av kalvuppfödningen på KRAV-anslutna och konventionella mjölkgårdar

Sammanfattning: In order to investigate if the KRAV-regulations have any effects on the health and welfare of calves, KRAV-affiliated farms were compared to conventional farms with respect to calf management and outcome. The dairy calf has had a low economical impact during history. Even today the value of the calf is low and a lot of calves have a poor health status. The calf breeding is built on tradition and on the fact, that cheap antibiotics have made it possible to ignore, the recommendations about good hygiene in the calf's environment. KRAV which started 1985 is the Swedish organisation that stipulates rules for organic farming. The investigation was carried out as a questionnaire and it was given to 40 different farms, 20 KRAV affiliated and 20 conventional. Those farms are participating in an animal health project about metabolic diseases at the department of Clinical Sciences, SLU. The questionnaire was divided into four different parts and the questions were about calf rearing in general and also about the relationship between cow and calf. Thirty-one farmers answered the questionnaire, 17 KRAV affiliated farmers and 14 conventional farmers. The results from the study showed that the KRAV affiliated farms weaned the calves later then the conventional farms. The KRAV affiliated farms also gave the calves milk in a nipple bucket or let them suckle a nurse cow while most of the conventional farms gave the calves milk in an open bucket. Eleven of 14 conventional farms and all the KRAV affiliated farms kept the cow and calf together after calving, but the conventional farms separated the cow and calf earlier then the KRAV affiliated farms. The health status of the calves showed no differences between the farms. The farmers also summoned a veterinarian equally often. The study showed differences between the KRAV affiliated and the conventional farms but those differences didn't affect the health of the calves.