Performance and feeding behaviour of calves on ad libitum milk from artificial teats

Abstract

Weight gain, milk intake, starter intake and number of days with diarrhoea were measured for individually housed Holstein calves offered milk twice daily by bucket at 5% of body weight per feeding ( n=11) or ad libitum from a teat ( n=12) from birth until 4 weeks of age. Mean weight gains during the first 2 weeks were 0.36 and 0.85 kg/day and during the next 2 weeks were 0.58 and 0.79 kg/day respectively. These differences were probably the result of higher milk consumption by teat-fed versus bucket-fed calves, which occurred in all 4 weeks. Starter consumption was negligible until 3 weeks of age for both groups, but the bucket-fed calves consumed more than teat-fed calves (0.25 versus 0.11 kg/day) during week 4. Milk drinking behaviour was studied in detail for eight teat-fed calves over 24 h. Total feeding time was 47 min. All individuals took their largest meals after new milk was provided in the morning (4.7 kg at 6.4 g/s) and after milk was added in the afternoon (3.2 kg at 5.0 g/s); 74% of total daily intake was consumed in these two meals. Calves that drank more also drank faster ( r=0.78 for morning meals, 0.90 for afternoon meals). Intake rate varied little over the course of large meals, although it tended to decelerate towards the end of the meal. Calves consumed the first meal of the day in 13 min, during which they were attached to the teat for 80% of the time. These meals comprised, on average, 25 individual sucking events of 25 s duration, interspersed by gaps of 7 s. Calves occasionally butted the teat, normally during the middle of the meal, and the frequency of butting correlated positively with intake rate ( r=0.80). Feeding calves ad libitum from teats allows them to determine their own intake patterns while improving performance compared to conventional bucket feeding.