Interpretation of behavioral data from a computer controlled milk feeder

P. P. Nielsen¹, M. B. Jensen² and L. Lidfors¹

¹Department of Animal Environment and Health, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden
²Department of Animal Health, Welfare and Nutrition, Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Denmark

Valuable behavior data may be automatically generated from an automatic milk feeder. This data can be used to evaluate the effect of various feeding and management schedules on milk feeding behavior. Furthermore, we can investigate the calves’ preferred diurnal rhythm of milk intake, how much, how often and also how fast the calves prefer to ingest milk. This type of information can be used in optimising the programming and the use of these feeders to better suit the calves social and feeding behavior.

The effect of milk allowance and type of weaning on milk feeder occupancy in dairy calves was investigated. Four blocks of 12 calves (n=48) were used. Within block calves had access to either a low milk allowance (4.8 l/day for heavy breeds and 3.6 l/day for Jersey) or a high milk allowance (9.2 l/day for heavy breeds and 7.2 l/day for Jersey), while concentrate was feed ad libitum. The two groups in each block were assigned to either gradual weaning from six to eight weeks of age, or abruptly weaning at eight weeks of age.

Abruptly weaned calves had a shorter total duration and a lower number of unrewarded visits to the milk feeder the last two days before weaning than gradually weaned calves (p<0.01 and p<0.001, respectively). However, the first two days after weaning abruptly weaned calves had a longer total duration and a higher number of unrewarded visits than gradually weaned calves (p<0.05 and p<0.001, respectively). Calves on high milk allowance had a shorter total duration and a lower number of unrewarded visits to the milk feeder than calves on low milk allowance before the gradual weaning started (p<0.05 and p<0.01, respectively).

These results show that gradually weaning of calves reduces unrewarded occupancy of the milk feeder the first few days after weaning compared to abrupt weaning. Furthermore, a high milk allowance reduces unrewarded occupancy of the milk feeder. The results represents an example of how automatically collected data from a milk feeder can be used to evaluate calves’ behavioral reaction to different feeding treatments.

Paper presented at Measuring Behavior 2005 , 5^th International Conference on Methods and Techniques in Behavioral Research, 30 August - 2 September 2005, Wageningen, The Netherlands.

© 2005 Noldus Information Technology bv