Claire Wegner

Growing up in the Fraser Valley on the west coast of Canada, I have always had a strong passion for animals and knew I wanted to spend my life working with (and for) them. As a 13-year-old, the obvious solution was to become a veterinarian, so that would remain my goal for nearly the next 10 years. It wasn't until the fourth year of my undergraduate degree at the University of British Columbia, when I somewhat accidentally enrolled in a course on research methods in applied biology, that I was exposed to the idea of helping animals through another means — research.

In taking this course, I was introduced to the wonderful creatures that are dairy cattle, and was granted the opportunity to develop my skills as a fledgling researcher under the guidance of a then-PhD student. This eventually led to my pursuit of a Master's degree at SLU, where I honed my knowledge relating to animal welfare and behaviour. It was at this time that I was first introduced to the ongoing "Cow and calf together" project, wherein I completed my MSc thesis project on the lying behaviour of cows that were housed in a freestall system with automatic milking, either with or without access to their calves.

My current work as a PhD student aims to further explore various aspects related to the management of cow-calf contact (CCC) systems, within the context of voluntary milking systems. This will include analysis of sensor and observational data to evaluate behaviours at different stages in early life (e.g., milk-feeding period, weaning and separation). Additionally, longer-term effects of CCC on production parameters will be investigated, as all heifer calves raised with access to their dams are followed through to the end of their first lactation.

To learn more about the project 'Cow and calf together', click here.

M.Sc. in Animal Science from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences - Graduated 2021

B.Sc. in Applied Animal Biology (Honours) from the University of British Columbia - Graduated 2019

MSc students

Cady Chan (Animal Science, SLU, 2024). Validation of a method for using positioning data from a real-time location system to estimate instances of affiliative interactions between dam-calf pairs in a freestall cow-calf contact system. Main supervisor: Sigrid Agenäs. Co-supervisor: Claire Wegner.

Matilda Ekholm (Veterinary Medicine, SLU, 2024). Effects of gradual weaning through 12-hour contact and artificial milk feeding on cow behaviour, milk yield and calf weight gain in a cow-calf contact system with automatic milking. Main supervisor: Hanna Eriksson. Co-supervisor: Claire Wegner.

Wegner, C.S., Chan, C.W., Rönnegård, L., Agenäs, S., Lidfors, L., and Eriksson, H.K. 2025. Suckling and allosuckling behavior of dairy calves in indoor dam-rearing systems. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 12: 1617158.

Wegner, C.S., Rönnegård, L., Agenäs, S., and Eriksson, H.K. 2025. Behavioural responses of dairy cows and calves to fenceline weaning after 4 or 6 months of full cow-calf contact. animal, 19(6): 101525. 

Whalin, L., Barth, K., Bertelsen, M., Bokkers, E.A.M., Ferneborg, S., Haskell, M.J., Ivemeyer, S., Jensen, M.J., Johanssen, J.R.E., Mejdell, C.M., Mughal, M., Neave, H.W., Vaarst, M., van Knegsel, A., van Zyl, C.L., Wegner, C.S., and Johnsen, J.F. 2025. Invited review: Future directions for cow-calf contact research and sustainable on-farm applications. Journal of Dairy Science, 108(7): 6550-6564.

Wegner, C.S., and Ternman, E. 2023. Lying behaviour of lactating dairy cows in a cow-calf contact freestall system. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 259: 105851.