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Behaviour. --- Social behaviour. --- Social. --- Stallion.

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The effect of feeding and handling on the response of young cattle to humans was investigated using 40 Danish Friesian calves removed from their dam immediately after birth. From day 3 to 17 of age calves were either: fed by humans and handled (stroking); fed by humans but not handled; fed without visual contact with humans and handled; or fed without visual contact with humans and not handled (control). Observations during the handling and/or feeding treatments revealed that calves fed with a human present performed more bunting behaviour but performed less play behaviour than those handled but not fed. The approach behaviour of each calf to an unknown person was assessed at days 3, 17, 32, and 62 in both their home pen and in an arena. Ln the home pen, handling had no effect on latency to interact with the person, but at days 17, 32, and 62 calves fed by humans were quicker to interact with a person than those fed without a human present. When tested in the arena, no consistent significant treatment effects were found at any age in latencies to approach or interact with the person. In a third test, the approach behaviour towards a person when social companions were present was assessed. With the human present only, time spent within 1 m of the person did not differ with age or treatment (17 to 62 days). But when two other calves were present, latency to approach the person increased (p < 0.05) and time spent near the person decreased (p < 0.05) with age. It is concluded that feeding has a greater influence on the responses of young calves towards humans than handling. However, this appears to be limited to the location in which the feeding took place. Despite receiving no additional handling, calves that were fed without a human present readily approached and interacted with an unknown person and spent a large proportion of time near the person in the arena tests, suggesting that handling in the first 2 days after birth may be very important in the development

Age. --- Arena test. --- Behavior. --- Behaviour. --- Birth. --- Boxes. --- Breed comparisons. --- Calves. --- Cattle-handling. --- Cattle. --- Contact. --- Control. --- Dairy-cows. --- Development. --- Discrimination. --- Feeding. --- Handling. --- Heifers. --- Human-animal interaction. --- Human-animal relationships. --- Human. --- Humans. --- Interaction. --- Interactions. --- Management. --- Observation. --- Open-field test. --- Pen. --- Pigs. --- Play behaviour. --- Play. --- Response. --- Responses. --- Social. --- Temperament. --- Test. --- Tests. --- Time. --- Treatment. --- Welfare. --- Young.

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The effects of handling at different times after birth on the subsequent response to humans was investigated using 40 Danish Friesian calves removed from their dams immediately after birth. Treatments were feeding and handling during days 1–4 after birth (H1–4), during days 6–9 (H6–9), or during days 11–14 (H11–14), and no handling (C: control). The handling treatment was carried out three times daily for 4 days and consisted of 6 min of hand-feeding with milk from a teat-bucket and patting, stroking and talking to the calf. All calves were housed in single pens. Human contact was minimised except during the treatment periods. The approach behaviour of each calf to an unknown person was tested at days 20, 40 and 55 in their home pen. The test at day 55 was carried out in a large single pen where the calves had been housed for 24 h prior to the test. Latency to interact with the person was shorter in all three tests for calves in H1–4 compared to C. There was no significant difference between H11–14 and C. Group H6–9 differed only from the control group at day 20. Treatment also affected the position and the orientation of the calf in the pen during the tests. Calves in H1–4 stood at the front of the pen and faced the person more often than calves in C. There was no difference between H11–14 and the C. All the three handled treatments had a shorter flight distance at day 55 compared to the control group. The results indicate that handling and hand-feeding, especially during the first 4 days after birth, increases the motivation of young calves to approach a human compared with calves that receive minimal human contact.

Behaviour. --- Birth. --- Calves. --- Contact. --- Control. --- Distance. --- Early handling. --- Feeding. --- Group. --- Handling. --- Human contact. --- Human. --- Humans. --- Increase. --- Increases. --- Milk. --- Motivation. --- Orientation. --- Pen. --- Periods. --- Position. --- Response. --- Socialisation. --- Test. --- Tests. --- Time. --- Treatment. --- Young.