The present survey was conducted to provide basic information on Hanwoo calf management. Eight hundred and sixty-two Hanwoo breeding farms from all nine provinces were surveyed via personal interviews. The percentages of farms categorized by herd size were 30.5%, 32.8%, 26.0% and 10.7% for <50 heads, 51~100 heads, 101~200 heads, and >200 heads, respectively. More than 50% of farms offered calf starter at 6∼10 days of age, showing that calf starter was offered relatively at an earlier age. Calf starter was replaced every three days by 30.1% of farms. The percentages of farms replacing starter weekly (19.2%) were even higher than those of replacing starter daily (18.8%), suggesting that the frequency of replacing starter needs to be increased to maintain starter freshness and to increase starter intake. About one-third of farms offered forage at 6~10 days of age and 21% of farms offered even at 1~5 days of age although it has been well known that forage does not contain either nutrient density or nutrient profile necessary to stimulate rumen papillae development, especially before weaning. Furthermore, about half of farms used rice straw with calf starter. Water was offered relatively at an earlier age (1~5 days of age) by 55% of farms. Deciding when to wean calves should be based on starter intake rather than age but less than 50% of farms decided weaning age by starter intake. In conclusions, to reduce weaning age of Hanwoo calves by rapid rumen papillae development it is necessary to provide fresh starter and water by increasing frequency of starter replacing and water trough cleaning and not to feed forage before weaning.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.