Mortality and Morbidity of Beef Calves in Free-Range Farms in Alentejo, Portugal—A Preliminary Study

Table 3

Effect of farmers’ perception of the economic impact of calf death on annual revenue (ANOVA and Duncan’s post hoc test) (least-square mean ± standard errors).

Perception of the economic impact on annual revenue	Unknown ()	Under 2% ()	2–5% ()	5–10% ()	Over 10% ()	-Value
Herd size	2.03 ± 0.12	2.04 ± 0.09	1.81 ± 0.15	2.39 ± 0.22	2.24 ± 0.18	0.220
% Weaned calves	−0.02 ± 0.01	−0.02 ± 0.01	−0.04 ± 0.01	−0.03 ± 0.02	−0.04 ± 0.01	0.492
Deaths (birth to 30 d)	0.52 ± 0.12	0.48 ± 0.09	0.24 ± 0.15	0.52 ± 0.22	0.91 ± 0.18	0.119
Deaths (30 d to weaning)	0.48 ± 0.12	0.26 ± 0.09	0.15 ± 0.16	0.52 ± 0.22	0.46 ± 0.18	0.355
Diarrhea	0.37 ± 0.15^a	0.43 ± 0.11^a	0.29 ± 0.19^a	1.22 ± 0.27^b	1.28 ± 0.22^b	0.003
Respiratory disease	0.09 ± 0.10^a	0.38 ± 0.08^ab	0.35 ± 0.13^ab	0.76 ± 0.18^b	0.76 ± 0.15^b	0.005
Sudden deaths	0.39 ± 0.10^ab	0.18 ± 0.08^a	0.15 ± 0.13^a	0.87 ± 0.19^c	0.68 ± 0.15^bc	0.005

Herd size and % weaned calves were transformed; the remaining variables were transformed; different letters in superscript correspond to statistically different means; values are significant at the level.