Sally Lyons

• BSc (Hons) Animal Science
• Does the number of neighbours alter stress levels in individually penned dairy calves

Deprivation of physical contact and play is common in young dairy calf management and recognised to be detrimental to their welfare. This project will determine if direct physical contact with two adjacent single penned calves, can significantly reduce isolation stress of calves having only one contact. Research shows that isolated calves are more fearful, have reduced social abilities and are more likely to develop oral vices such as tongue rolling. In this study fearfulness of human approach and levels of chronic stress will be determined using the Polar^TM heart monitor also the incidence of any aberrant behaviour recorded from observations.

Funding Source: Newcastle University