Effect of milkflow rate and presence of a floating nipple on abnormal sucking between dairy calves

The aim of this study was to investigate if access to an artificial teat co mpared to an open bucket would decrease abnormal sucking in calves held in pairs, and if the calves would perform less abnormal sucking if they spent more time drinking or sucking the milk. In total 16 calves of Swedish Red a nd White cattle housed in pairs were used. The eight groups were given 2.51 of whole milk per calf, twice a day in one of the following treatments; bu cket with fast how (control), bucket with slow flow, floating nipple with f ast flow and floating nipple with slow flow. All groups were subjected to t he four different treatments in a random balanced order. Two buckets were c onnected with a rubber pipe in order to control the milk flow. In the fast treatments, the milk poured from one bucket to the other in 40 s, and in th e slow treatments the milk poured from one bucket to the other in 10 min. E ach group had the treatment for 6 days before behavioural observations were done on day 7. These were made by instantaneous recordings at 20 s interva ls for 30 min, starting when the calves received their milk in the morning and afternoon. The number of recordings of abnormal sucking was lower than the control in all treatments (P < 0.001). The lowest recording of abnormal sucking was found, when the calves had both a floating nipple and a slow h ow. Sucking on other objects in the pen had the highest number of recording s, when they had a nipple and a fast flow (P < 0.01), but the sucking on th e empty nipple represented 95% of this category. The calves tended to lick, and bite more on the bucket, the nipple and pen fittings in the two treatm ents with fast flow (P < 0.1) than in the slow treatment with nipple. It is concluded that both the performance of sucking and the time taken to inges t milk are important in order to decrease abnormal sucking between calves. <(c)> 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.