Table 8.
Metabolic status of dairy cows during the dry cow period (2–21 days prepartum) and the fresh cow period (30–50 days postpartum) in three different cow-calf contact groups.
| No contact | Partial contact | Full contact | F-value | P-value | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean | SE | Mean | SE | Mean | SE | |||
| Dry cow period | ||||||||
| NEFA, mmol/L | 0.26 | 0.06 | 0.22 | 0.05 | 0.27 | 0.06 | 0.04 | 0.96 |
| BHBA, mmol/L | 0.50 | 0.04 | 0.46 | 0.05 | 0.47 | 0.04 | 0.25 | 0.79 |
| Urea, mmol/L | 4.69 | 0.39 | 5.23 | 0.53 | 4.70 | 0.40 | 0.56 | 0.58 |
| Magnesium, mmol/L | 0.83 | 0.03 | 0.84 | 0.04 | 0.82 | 0.04 | 0.57 | 0.58 |
| Haptoglobin, g/L | 0.10 | 0.02 | 0.21 | 0.12 | 0.17 | 0.09 | 0.07 | 0.93 |
| Fresh cow period | ||||||||
| BHBA, mmol/L | 0.54 | 0.04 | 0.54 | 0.07 | 0.53 | 0.03 | 0.73 | 0.49 |
| Urea, mmol/L | 3.36 | 0.61 | 4.79 | 0.52 | 3.65 | 0.31 | 3.29 | 0.05 |
| Calcium, mmol/L | 2.31 | 0.05 | 2.34 | 0.04 | 2.30 | 0.02 | 0.64 | 0.53 |
NEFA, Non-esterified fatty acids; BHBA, Beta-hydroxybutyrate.