ISSN 1392-2130. VETERINARIJA IR ZOOTECHNIKA (Vet Med Zoot). T. 55 (77). 2011 20 EFFECT OF FLOOR TYPES ON THE GROWTH PERFORMANCE AND SOME BEHAVIOURAL TRAITS OF BROWN SWISS CALVES Tugca Zeynep Kartal, Mete Yanar Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture, Atatürk University 25240, Erzurum, Turkey; e-mail: myanar@atauni.edu.tr Summary. The study was carried out to compare growth performance, feed efficiency ratio and some behavioural characteristics of Brown Swiss calves kept on rubber mats, wooden slat or concrete pens. All pens were bedded daily with long wheat straw. While weights at weaning and 4 months of age were not significantly influenced by the type of floor, average 6 months weight of the calves housed on the rubber mats pens was significantly (P<0.05) lower than those in wooden slat and concrete groups. Total weight gains of calves in wooden slat and concrete pens between 4 and 6 months of ages were significantly (P<0.05) greater than these of the young animals on the rubber mats pens. Average amount of dry matter of the feed (4.15±0.06) consumed per kg weight gains between birth and 6 months of age was not affected significantly by the types of floor and sex of calves. However, percentage of time spent for lying (P<0.05) and standing (P<0.01) behaviours were significantly affected by the type of floors. Keywords: Brown Swiss, calves, type of floor, growth performance, behavioural traits. SKIRTINGO TIPO GRINDŲ ĮTAKA ŠVEICARŲ VEISLĖS VERŠELIŲ AUGIMUI IR ELGSENAI Tugca Zeynep Kartal, Mete Yanar Gyvulininkystės katedra, Žemės ūkio fakultetas, Atatürk universitetas, 25240 - Erzurum, Turkija el. paštas: myanar@atauni.edu.tr Santrauka. Atliktas tyrimas norint palyginti šveicarų veislės veršelių priesvorį, pašarų pasisavinimą ir elgseną, lai- kant ant guminio pakloto, medinio pagrindo ir betoninių grindų. Visi gardai kasdien buvo kreikiami kviečių šiaudais. Nustatyta, kad atjunkymo metu ir sulaukus 4 mėnesių, grindų tipas neturėjo statistiškai ženklios įtakos veršelių augimui. Tuo tarpu sulaukus 6 mėnesių, veršelių, laikomų ant guminio pakloto, svoris buvo statistiškai ženkliai mažesnis paly- ginti su veršeliais, laikytais ant medinio pagrindo ir betoninių grindų (p<0,05). Ši tendencija pradėjo ryškėti tarp 4–6 mėnesių veršelių. Ištirta, kad pašaro sausosios medžiagos suvartojimas kilogramui veršelio gyvojo svorio priaugti nuo atvedimo ir iki 6 mėnesių (4,15±0,06), priklausomai nuo grindų tipo ar veršelio lyties, nebuvo statistiškai ženkliai reikšmingas. Tačiau veršeliai ant medinių ir betoninių grindų statistiškai ženkliai ilgiau gulėjo (p<0,05), o ant guminių grindų – ilgiau stovėjo (p<0,01). Tai rodo, kad guminis paklotas nėra labai tinkamas veršeliams auginti. Raktažodžiai: grindų tipas, priesvoriai, elgsena, šveicarų veislės veršeliai. Introduction. The early phase of the young animals’ life is so crucial because the calves are too susceptible to the environmental and housing factors such as floor and bedding materials. The type of floor and/or bedding may not only have an influence on the incidence of leg lesions but also on other pathologies, mortality and hygiene. Therefore, the appropriate floor and bedding material for calves have to be provided in the barns of the calf. The appropriate floor and bedding materials should improve animals’ welfare and decrease their stress. Mogensen et al. (1997) and Hanninen et al. (2005) also reported positive relations between the amount of rest and growth rate. Be- cause of these findings, in recent years, improved flooring in dairy cattle housing systems has received considerable attention (Telezhenko, 2007). The Ideal floor of the indi- vidual calf pens must not be too slippery since the slip- pery floor disrupts locomotion and may suppress other behaviour of the animals. Therefore, type of the floor is a significant issue in animal welfare (Stefanowska et al. 2002). Recently, dairy calves in the modern dairy cattle farms in Turkey are housed in individual or group pens with feed and water-milk buckets. Generally, the floor of the pen is concrete and long wheat straw is also utilized as bedding material. Yet, in recent years, rubber mats and wooden slats have also begun to be used as flooring mate- rials in some of the dairy farms. In literature, the impact of the various flooring materials on the dairy performance, welfare and health of the cows were investigated by sev- eral researchers (Manninen et al., 2002; Benz, 2002; Tucker et al., 2003; Vanegas et al., 2006, Telezhenko, 2007, Norring et al. 2010). General conclusion drawn from these researches is that dairy cows had a preference for rubber mats in their stalls, and the animals had lower incidence of claw lesions and clinical lameness that is of crucial importance for dairy performance, longevity of the cows and for production economy. However, there is lack of comparative study investigating the effect of these flooring materials on the growth performance and welfare of the early weaned Brown Swiss calves. Therefore, the present study was carried out to investigate the effects of the various flooring materials (concrete, wooden slats and rubber mats) on the behavioural characteristics, growth rate and feed efficiency traits of Brown Swiss calves.