Performance of free suckling dairy calves in an automatic milking system and their behaviour at weaning

Abstract

The performance of dairy calves allowed to suckle freely (FS) until eight weeks of age in a cubicle system with automatic milking was compared to automatic teat-feeding with low milk (LM) or high milk (HM) substitute allowances. Weight gain and feed intake of FS (n = 13), LM (n = 23) and HM (n = 22) calves were recorded until two weeks after abrupt weaning, and their behaviour was studied during weaning. FS calves had higher weight gain, but much lower solid feed intake until weaning, than LM and HM calves and their advantage in weight remained throughout the study despite very low post-weaning gain. During the first 24 hours after weaning, FS calves displayed more behavioural signs of stress. However, at 72 hours after weaning, behaviour was similar for all treatments. Methods to stimulate solid feed intake before weaning need to be developed to draw advantage of the FS system.

Keywords:

• Dairy cows
• feed intake
• milk replacer
• weight gain

Acknowledgements

This study was financed by the Swedish Animal Welfare Agency. The authors wish to thank the staff at Kungsängen Research Centre for help and assistance. We also thank Mikaela Patel, Helena Hultborn and Malin Langenfors for help with behavioural recordings, professor Dietrich von Rosen for statistical advice, Peter Österberg for help and statistical discussions and Jenny Archer for linguistic revision.