| Budget Amount *help |
¥5,330,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,230,000)
Fiscal Year 2013: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥300,000)
Fiscal Year 2012: ¥1,820,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥420,000)
Fiscal Year 2011: ¥2,210,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥510,000)
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
The early maternal deprivation has long-lasting negative effects on growth and behavioral development in several animal species. Though early cow-calf separation has become popular in dairy and even in beef industry, people are less concerned about the negative effect. We have developed a mechanical brush, an automatic rotating brush, for calf as an alternative for mother's grooming (patent-pending) and examined its effects on calves' growth and behavior.
The calves continuously utilized the brush until grouping. The average utilization time per 1 day was 25.3 min. Although the daily weight gains during 3 months after group introduction were not different in female, male calves using the brush gained more weight than control suggesting its appeasing effect for social stress. These data suggest a strong motivation of calves for the usage of the mechanical brush, further research is needed to investigate possible benefits of this device.
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