07/10/2024
We enjoyed this article in the Farmers Weekly UK recently, talking about how toys help dairy calves:
- express their natural behaviour which, in turn, benefits their mental wellbeing
- make them less likely to display unwanted behaviours such as cross-sucking
- when being reared in groups, with access to toys, calves returned to eating and ruminating more quickly, than groups without toys.
- increased play, social interaction, investigative behaviour, and lying time
A recent study also showed that toys enable calves to be better equipped to deal with a stressful event, such as disbudding.
What's not to love! You can check out the article here:
Giving dairy calves plastic “toys” to play with helps them express their natural behaviour which, in turn, benefits their mental wellbeing. As a result,