The effect of age when group housed and other management factors on playing and non-nutritive sucking behaviour in dairy calves: a cross sectional observational study

Abstract

Background The aim of this study was to investigate if calves’ play behaviour and non-nutritive sucking behaviour, as indirect measures of welfare status, are associated with the age of the calf when group housed, age when observed, age difference within the group, pen size, milk feeding system, current or previous sicknesses, access to dry teat, indoor/outdoor rearing, sex, organic/conventional farm, group size and regrouping events. An observational study was conducted on 176 Danish dairy calves in the age range of 1–12 weeks, on both conventional (n = 17) and organic (n = 5) farms. All calves had been group housed before 8 weeks of age and had spent various periods of time with the dam and/or individually housed before being group housed. Behaviour was recorded continuously by filming each individual calf over a period of 30 min. Results The calf’s age when group housed for the first time was not found to be significantly associated with duration of either play behaviour (P = 0.55) or non-nutritive sucking behaviour (P = 0.44). It was found that calves had significantly reduced odds of playing for longer than the mean play duration (5.5 s) for each day of their lives (OR = 0.97, P = 0.003). Also, they had reduced odds of performing non-nutritive sucking behaviour for longer than the mean non-nutritive sucking duration (145.5 s) when milk was allocated by drinker buckets fitted with a teat compared to by bowl or trough (OR = 0.06, P = 0.02). Conclusion No significant associations were found between calves’ age when group housed for the first time and play and non-nutritive sucking behaviour. It was found that calves’ play behaviour decreased with increasing age, and that non-nutritive sucking behaviour decreased when milk was allocated with a teat compared to no teat.

Welfare implications on management strategies for rearing dairy calves: A systematic review. Part 1–feeding management

“…Depending on the protocol, the calves may suffer from hunger or frustration, which would worsen animal welfare at affective states or cognitive judgment and natural living spheres. In order to know whether the animals are hungry, non-nutritive oral behaviors ( 87 , 88 ), cross-sucking ( 89 ) and vocalizations ( 90 , 91 ) could be studied. In addition, when animals do not feel hungry, they engage in more locomotor play, which is a positive indicator of welfare ( 82 , 85 ).…”

“…Another option is to use bottles with nipples, which are more compatible with the natural living sphere. With this method, animals show less non-nutritive sucking ( 88 ). In addition, throughout the literature reviewed, the method of feeding has been modernized with the introduction of automatic milk feeders, which are introduced to animals at around 5 days of age and can be housed in groups of 10–15 calves ( 93 , 94 ).…”

Welfare of calves

“…Veal calves offered milk in a bucket showed more tongue rolling than calves offered milk in an automatic milk feeder (AMF) (Webb et al., 2015 ). Results of a cross‐sectional study in dairy farms also indicated that non‐nutritive sucking behaviour decreased when milk was provided with a teat compared with no teat (via bowl or trough) (Reipurth et al., 2020 ).…”