Stereotypies in heifers are affected by feeding regime

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of feed giving long or short duration of feeding, including rumination, on oral stereotypy levels in cattle. Forty-eight tethered heifers of the Swedish Red and White Breed, with an average age of 16 months, were subjected to the same treatment. During the first 2 weeks of the experiment (Period 1), they were fed a diet with free access to long straw, silage and concentrate (AL) with which they were also fed before the onset of the study. After a week of gradual adaptation they were changed to a diet containing only silage and concentrate (R) but with the same energy content as AL. After 3 weeks on the R diet (Period 2), they were returned to the AL diet for the remaining 2 weeks (Period 3) of the experimental period. The number of animals that performed stereotypies differed significantly ( P < 0.001) between the three periods, with 16 heifers in Period 1, 44 heifers in Period 2, and 25 heifers in Period 3. The frequency of recordings of stereotypies differed significantly between periods ( P < 0.001), with considerable increases in Period 2. This pattern was general although the levels of the stereotypy frequency varied between animals. The time budgets for the animals were highly affected by treatment since all behavioural categories showed significant variations over time, with increases in, for example, standing, social behaviours, licking/biting and decreases in eating behaviour, rumination and total lying time in response to restricted feeding. The results from this experiment clearly show that restrictive allowances of roughage with its effects on behavioural time budgets, especially on feeding behaviours, considerably increase the development and frequency of oral stereotypies in cattle.