{"id":1951,"date":"2025-10-30T14:20:26","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T18:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.well-e.org\/publication\/is-there-a-right-time-for-dairy-alpine-goat-kid-weaning-how-does-the-weaning-age-of-dairy-alpine-goat-kids-affect-their-growth-and-behavior\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T23:41:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T03:41:15","slug":"is-there-a-right-time-for-dairy-alpine-goat-kid-weaning-how-does-the-weaning-age-of-dairy-alpine-goat-kids-affect-their-growth-and-behavior","status":"publish","type":"publication","link":"https:\/\/wp.well-e.org\/fr\/publication\/is-there-a-right-time-for-dairy-alpine-goat-kid-weaning-how-does-the-weaning-age-of-dairy-alpine-goat-kids-affect-their-growth-and-behavior\/","title":{"rendered":"Is there a right time for dairy Alpine goat kid weaning: How does the weaning age of dairy Alpine goat kids affect their growth and behavior?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Authors:<\/strong> St\u00e9phanie B\u00e9langer-Naud and Tania Wolfe and Athena Zambelis and Janie L\u00e9vesque and Carl Julien and Elsa Vasseur<\/p>\n<p><strong>Date:<\/strong> 2024-01-01<\/p>\n<p><strong>Journal:<\/strong> Journal of Animal Science<\/p>\n<p><strong>Status:<\/strong> Published<\/p>\n<p><strong>DOI:<\/strong> 10.1093\/jas\/skad413<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/jas\/article\/doi\/10.1093\/jas\/skad413\/7492733\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">View External Publication<\/a><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>Abstract In dairy goat kids, weaning is often associated with poor growth leading to a decline in welfare and performance; however, little is known about optimal weaning practices. This study aimed to determine the optimal weaning age for dairy goat kids to maximize outcome measures of welfare related to growth, feed intake, and behavior. Thirty-six newborn female Alpine kids were blocked by weight and birth date, paired with a similar male companion and randomly allocated to one of the three weaning age treatments: 6 (6W), 8 (8W), and 10\u00a0wk (10W). Kids had ad libitum access to acidified milk replacer refilled twice daily, concentrates, hay, and water. Milk consumption was measured daily, and concentrate consumption, weekly. Ten behaviors were live observed on days \u22128, \u22124, 0, 6, and 12 relative to weaning (i.e., weaning day\u2005=\u20050). Kruskal\u2013Wallis tests were used to assess differences from baseline between the 6W, 8W, and 10W treatments. Post hoc analysis using the Dwass, Steel, Critchlow-Fligner (DSCF) multiple comparison analysis was used to evaluate pairwise treatment differences based on two-sample Wilcoxon comparisons. Kids weaned at 10\u00a0wk had the greatest increase compared to baseline in concentrate consumption (P\u2005=\u20050.0160), and greatest decrease compared to baseline in vocalization (P\u2005=\u20050.0008) while both 8- and 10- wk kid\u2019s groups had the greatest increase compared to baseline in self-grooming time (P\u2005&amp;lt;\u20050.0001), and cross-sucking time (P\u2005=\u20050.0006). Kids weaned at 6\u00a0wk of age were found to have the smallest increase compared to baseline in concentrate consumption (P\u2005=\u20050.0160) and self-grooming time (P\u2005&amp;lt;\u20050.0001), and the greatest increase compared to baseline in allogrooming time (P\u2005=\u20050.0032) and in redirected behaviors aimed towards the environment (biting and licking time [P\u2005=\u20050.0173]; displacement at the nipple frequency [P\u2005=\u20050.0236]). No negative impact of weaning on growth of either group was identified. Overall, our results tend towards a higher degree of discomfort behaviors (allogrooming, biting\/licking, displacement, and vocalizations) in kids weaned earlier compared to later weaning, while kids weaned later showed higher levels of positive behaviors (lying time and self-grooming).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":""},"class_list":["post-1951","publication","type-publication","status-publish","hentry"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Is there a right time for dairy Alpine goat kid weaning: How does the weaning age of dairy Alpine goat kids affect their growth and behavior? - WELL-E<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wp.well-e.org\/fr\/publication\/is-there-a-right-time-for-dairy-alpine-goat-kid-weaning-how-does-the-weaning-age-of-dairy-alpine-goat-kids-affect-their-growth-and-behavior\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_CA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is there a right time for dairy Alpine goat kid weaning: How does the weaning age of dairy Alpine goat kids affect their growth and behavior? - WELL-E\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Authors: St\u00e9phanie B\u00e9langer-Naud and Tania Wolfe and Athena Zambelis and Janie L\u00e9vesque and Carl Julien and Elsa Vasseur Date: 2024-01-01 Journal: Journal of Animal Science Status: Published DOI: 10.1093\/jas\/skad413 View External Publication Abstract In dairy goat kids, weaning is often associated with poor growth leading to a decline in welfare and performance; however, little is [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/wp.well-e.org\/fr\/publication\/is-there-a-right-time-for-dairy-alpine-goat-kid-weaning-how-does-the-weaning-age-of-dairy-alpine-goat-kids-affect-their-growth-and-behavior\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"WELL-E\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-29T03:41:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wp.well-e.org\\\/publication\\\/is-there-a-right-time-for-dairy-alpine-goat-kid-weaning-how-does-the-weaning-age-of-dairy-alpine-goat-kids-affect-their-growth-and-behavior\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wp.well-e.org\\\/publication\\\/is-there-a-right-time-for-dairy-alpine-goat-kid-weaning-how-does-the-weaning-age-of-dairy-alpine-goat-kids-affect-their-growth-and-behavior\\\/\",\"name\":\"Is there a right time for dairy Alpine goat kid weaning: How does the weaning age of dairy Alpine goat kids affect their growth and behavior? 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