Dr. Emily Miller-Cushon has built her career around studying the behavior and welfare of calves.
The Associate Professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Florida recently shared insights from her research on “Meeting Dairy Calf Behavior Needs to Improve Lifelong Welfare,” a webinar sponsored by the Dairy Cattle Welfare Council.
Miller-Cushon’s intriguing work has focused on myriad aspects of calf behavior. She and her colleagues have studied social housing, oral behaviors, grooming activities and more. They also have examined the relationship between calves’ welfare and their health and performance.
Their findings have shown that there definitely are on-farm enhancements that can improve calves’ quality of life and sometimes their health and performance as well. Miller-Cushon emphasized that not all of those changes need to be costly or complicated. She noted 4 small measures that can yield big rewards in terms of calf welfare:
- Give them a buddy – Miller-Cushon said there is now a large body of research that consistently shows the benefits of pair housing. “Essentially, there is not a downside to it,” she shared, noting that raising calves in pairs influences both their behavior and performance in both the short and long term. When’s the best time to introduce a pen mate? The researcher said starting at birth. She also noted that most calf hutches with outdoor runs provide ample resting space to house preweaned calves in pairs, so there is essentially no additional cost incurred.
- Bump the feeding rate – To discourage cross-sucking in pair housing, Miller-Cushon advised working calves up to a peak milk or milk replacer allowance of at least 8 liters (quarts) per day. The satiety created by higher feeding rates should make calves less likely to demonstrate undesirable oral behaviors like cross-sucking and chewing and sucking their environment, like gates and fence panels.
- Brush up on grooming – A study by Miller-Cushon’s team showed that calves with access to brushes for voluntary grooming had reduced duration of pen-directed oral behaviors and increased lying time, indicating that the brushes had a calming effect. While calves love the high-end mechanical, rotary grooming brushes, the Florida researchers also have observed positive outcomes from mounting stationary scrub brushes in calf-housing areas. Calves used them readily, and the investment was just a few dollars.
- Serve hay as an appetizer – While the majority of calves’ nutrition should come from the liquid ration and starter grain, Miller-Cushon said calves are naturally motivated to eat hay. The oral manipulation of the feed, coupled with the exploration of it that keeps calves entertained, has been shown to reduce pen-directed sucking, especially at weaning time. “This hay can be relatively poor quality, because we are relying on it for the behavioral benefits it confers, not its nutritional aspects,” she shared. “Even straw can serve this purpose.”
Miller-Cushon and her team now are focusing their research efforts on the lifelong improvements that can be made for calves when they are raised in an environment that is supportive of their welfare. “In all species, social isolation has long-term effects on anxiety and resilience,” she shared. “They are now examining whether meeting behavioral needs in calfhood translates into better foraging skills, social abilities, competition for resources, coping skills under stress, and ability to learn as cows.”
