Ib. Stewart et al., SUCKLING BEHAVIOR AND FERTILITY IN BEEF-COWS ON PASTURE .1. SUCKLING BEHAVIOR, South African journal of animal science, 23(5-6), 1993, pp. 176-179
The suckling behaviour of one- to three-month-old calves, suckled by 6
6 Hereford, Simmentaler and Hereford X Simmentaler cows, was studied.
The most common frequency of suckling in 24 h was 4, and the mean dura
tion of each suckling event was 9.6 min. Suckling events were not even
ly distributed throughout the 24-h period. Regardless of suckling freq
uency or days post partum, the most common suckling period was between
04:00 and 06:00. The lowest frequency of suckling recorded was in the
period from midnight to dawn. The longest interval between two suckli
ng events in all cows over the 24-h period always occurred before dawn
and became longer as the calf grew older (P < 0.01). Once the mating
season commenced, the onset of oestrus was positively correlated (P <
0.01) with the length of the longest inter-suckling period.