The Effects of Milk Feeding Method and Group Size on Feeding Behavior and Cross-Sucking in Group-Housed Dairy Calves

This study investigated the effect of teat feeding and group size on cross-sucking and competition for milk in dairy calves. Ninety-six Holstein-Friesian male and female calves were allocated to either pairs or groups of 6 and fed milk either from a bucket or via a teat. Calves fed via a teat spent more time ingesting the milk. They spent time sucking the empty teat after milk intake and they spent less time cross-sucking compared with calves fed from buckets. The results show that teat feeding reduces cross-sucking in groups of 6 calves. Calves in groups of 6 ingested the milk faster than calves housed in pairs, which suggests that the competition for milk was greater than in pairs. Teat-fed calves changed to another teat more often than bucket-fed calves changed to another bucket during milk intake. Thus, the use of teat feeding did not reduce the competition for milk as compared with bucket feeding and future studies should focus on improving teat-feeding methods so that they reduce competition for milk in group-housed calves.