Behavior investigated in calves [Bos taurus] waiting for automatic milk replacer feeding system
1998
Sugita, S. (College of Dairying, Ebetsu, Hokkaido (Japan)) | Morita, S. | Yamamoto, M. | Hoshiba, S. | Uemura, T.
The objective of this study was to clarify the behavior of calves waiting for the automatic milk replacer feeding system. Twenty-six calves (approximately 10 days old) were kept in a group in a pen (9 x 7 m) provided with a calf starter trough, a water trough, and a feeding system equipped with an automatic milk replacer. For 24 hours observation of calves, two infrared TV cameras were installed and the pen was divided into 61 sections 1 square meter each. The position and behavioral of each calf was checked every minute. The behavioral categories recorded were (1) occupying the automatic feeding system, (2) waiting for the automatic milk replace, (3) accessing the calf start trough, (4) standing around, (5) lying, (6) moving about, and (7) accessing the water trough. The number of waiting period decreased with increasing duration, and only 3% of the total waiting intervals extended to 10 minutes or longer. Log survivor function depicting the waiting duration formed a straight line, indicating a random distribution. This shows that the probability of a waiting period is constant, regardless of the duration. In 8.9% of the calves, occupancy of the automatic feeding system was immediately preceded by waiting for the automatic milk replacer
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