The effect of housing and food restriction during winter on growth of male red deer calves

Low winter growth is a characteristic of male red deer and is caused, in part by a combination of reduced appetite and higher energy expenditure due to cold weather. This study aimed to determine whether housing during winter could reduce energy expenditure and increase the growth rate of male red deer calves. An additional aim was to investigate whether food restriction in winter would be compensated for by increased spring growth. In each of two consecutive years, 80 calves were randomly allocated to eight groups (no. = 10) comprising two replicates of four treatments during winter. Groups were housed inside (I) or outside (O) and given food either ad libitum (AL) or restricted (R) to maintain live weight. Winter treatments (southern hemisphere) ran from 12 May to 25 August (year 1) and from 5 June to 5 September (year 2). During these periods, animals were weighed weekly and group food intake recorded daily. At the end of winter animals were moved outside onto pasture and weighed monthly until the end of spuing (27 November, year 1 and 7 December, year 2). In year 2 weighing continued during summer, until 4 April. The animals were slaughtered on 28 November and 18 January (year 1) and 5 April (year 2). The effect of housing on live-weight gain (LWG) and dry-matter intake (DMI) in AL groups was not significant in either year. However in R groups, O had a higher DMI than I in both years (P < 0.05) and a higher LWG than I in year 1 (P < 0.05). LWG was lower in R than in AL groups in winter in year 1 (P < 0.05) and year 2 (P < 0.001) and live weight was lower in R than in AL groups at the end of winter in both years. Live weight was still lower in R than in AL groups at the end of spring in both years (P < 0.01). In year 2, this live-weight difference was not significant by the end of summer. Hot carcass weight (HCW) was greater in AL animals than R animals (P < 0.05) and dressing proportion was higher in R than in AL (P < 0.05) in year 1. GR (an index of body fatness) was greater (P < 0.05) in O than I in year 1 and was greater (P < 0.05) in AL than in R animals in year 2. Differences in GR between treatments were not significant in either year, with HCW as a covariate. In conclusion, housing calves given food ad libitum during winter did not reduce DMI or increase growth rate. When normal growth rates were prevented by restricting food intake, housing lowered DMI requirement, although such a situation is unlikely to be a useful farm management practice as recovery from the growth check was slow. Annual variations in climate may determine both the food savings made by housing and the extent of compensatory growth of food-restricted animals in spring.