Case study of the market situation of calves from Alpine dairy farms and the effect of dams’ grazing during the last three months of gestation on auction parameters

Figures & data

Figure 1. Number of calves sold by year and its percentage partition among breeds within year. *N: Total number of sold calves for respective year; values in brackets highlight the respective trend within each cattle breed

Figure 2. Mean auction price (€/kg liveweight) of calves by breed and year.

Table 1. Results of the ANOVA for the different traits considered in the analysis of the dataset on calves’ quality at auctions.

Traits	DF	Live weight (kg)		Price per kg liveweight (€/kg)		Market value (€/calf)
		F	Significance (P)	F	Significance (P)	F	Significance (P)
Auction	497	11.7	<0.0001	203.1	<0.0001	122.9	<0.0001
Seller	5250	23.7	<0.0001	12.1	<0.0001	19.5	<0.0001
Breed	4	1104.8	<0.0001	29,784.9	<0.0001	19,848.9	<0.0001
Gender	1	4910.3	<0.0001	5662.5	<0.0001	6853.6	<0.0001
Age of calf	1	24,681.1	<0.0001	4157.6	<0.0001	228.6	<0.0001
Dam’s age at calving	15	665.2	<0.0001	59.3	<0.0001	280.8	<0.0001
Breed*gender	4	87.1	<0.0001	199.5	<0.0001	287.8	<0.0001

Table 2. Least-square means of the selling parameters the auctions for purebred calves of different breeds.

Breed	Liveweight (kg)	Price per kg liveweight (€/kg)	Market value (€/calf)
Brown Swiss	62.2^d	1.77^e	127.6^e
Holstein Friesian	61.0^d	2.19^d	153.5^d
Alpine Grey	63.7^c	3.27^b	233.5^b
Simmental	68.1^a	4.64^a	350.6^a
Pinzgauer	65.9^b	2.82^c	210.8^c

Different superscripted letters within column indicate a significant breed difference (p < 0.05).

Table 3. Gender difference in liveweight and auction price for calves of different breeds.

Breed	Live weight at auction (kg)			Auction price (€/kg live weight)
	Male	Female	Difference	Male	Female	Difference
Brown Swiss	67.1	57.3	17%	2.01	1.52	32%
Holstein Friesian	64.3	57.8	10%	2.44	1.94	26%
Alpine Grey	67.1	60.1	12%	3.68	2.85	29%
Simmental	71.4	64.8	15%	5.04	4.24	19%
Pinzgauer	70.6	61.2	11%	3.17	2.47	28%

Table 4. Number of calves within breed according to use of pasture by their dams during the last 90 days of gestation.

Breed	No grazing	Grazing	Total	Percentage of calves from grazing mothers
Brown Swiss	11,626	1292	12,918	10.0%
Holstein Friesian	7422	502	7924	6.3%
Alpine Grey	6846	1534	8380	18.3%
Simmental	18,783	1900	20,684	9.2%
Pinzgauer	920	136	1056	12.9%
Total	45,598	5364	50,962	10.5%

Table 5. Results of the ANOVA for the different traits considered in the analysis of the dataset used to assess the effect of dam’s grazing during the last three months of gestation on calves’ quality at auctions.

Traits:	DF	Live weight (kg)		Price per kg liveweight (€/kg)		Market value (€/calf)
		F	Significance (P)	F	Significance (P)	F	Significance (P)
Auction	105	14.7	<0.0001	103.7	<0.0001	66.7	<0.0001
Seller	3398	16.9	<0.0001	6.4	<0.0001	9.4	<0.0001
Breed	4	385.9	<0.0001	5575.9	<0.0001	3469.1	<0.0001
Gender	1	1894.9	<0.0001	615.9	<0.0001	885.1	<0.0001
Age of calf	1	4291.9	<0.0001	750.2	<0.0001	43.9	<0.0001
Dam’s age at calving	15	144.2	<0.0001	11.2	<0.0001	53.0	<0.0001
Grazing	1	12.7	0.0004	0.3	0.5974	0.1	0.9799
Breed*gender	4	17.6	<0.0001	43.0	<0.0001	50.4	<0.0001
Breed*grazing	4	8.1	<0.0001	8.1	<0.0001	7.3	<0.0001

Table 6. Least square means of the interaction between breed and grazing during the last 90 days of gestation for of calves selling parameters at auctions.

	Live weight at auction [kg]		Auction price [€/kg]		Market value [€/calf]
Breed*	No grazing	Grazing	No grazing	Grazing	No grazing	Grazing
Brown Swiss	62.2	61.0	1.39	1.37	101.0	99.2
Holstein Friesian	60.8	61.2	1.82	1.81	128.0	132.3
Alpine grey	63.4	62.4	3.11	3.06	221.9	213.7
Simmental	67.9	68.1	4.44	4.50	336.2	338.4
Pinzgauer	63.1	62.4	2.64	2.72	189.8	193.2

*The interaction of breed and grazing during the last 90 days of gestation significant (p < 0.05) for all dependent variables.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, Dr Thomas Zanon. The data are not publicly available due to privacy/ethical restrictions.