Does drinking milk stimulate sucking in young calves?

Abstract

To examine the motivation of non-nutritive sucking by calves, a series of tests was conducted on calves that were fed milk replacer by bucket and allowed to suck on a dry artificial teat. After the morning and afternoon meals, the calves sucked the teat for 4–6 min while they sucked it for less than 1 min when the teat was offered outside regular meal time (12:00 h). When milk replacer was offered outside regular meal time (12:00 h) calves sucked and butted the teat significantly more ( P<0.001) than if no milk was offered. When the artificial teat was offered after a delay of 10, 30 or 60 min after the milk replacer meal, calves sucked and butted the teat significantly less than when the teat was offered immediately after the meal. The ingestion of water stimulated sucking ( P<0.01) but not butting when it was offered at 12:00 h, while milk stimulated sucking and butting to a significantly higher level ( P<0.01). We conclude that the ingestion of milk plays an important role in stimulating sucking in the calf. Nevertheless more research is needed to identify other factors that stimulate and/or control sucking and how these interact with the effect elicited by milk.