Socially sustainable calf management for better animal welfare – how does technology contribute?

Can automated milk feeders increase opportunities for calves to receive more biologically normal milk allowances and thus better welfare?

Today, dairy calves often receive restrictive milk feeding, which may cause periods of sustained hunger, reduce their subsequent milk production as cows, and increase their susceptibilty to diarrhea. Experts recommend a more biologically normal milk allowance of 20% of the body weight, for at least the first month of the calf's life.

In a recent interview study, participating dairy farmers agreed that calves that are given more than two meals per day, spread out over the day, consume more milk. However, few participants felt that this was practically feasible for both economic, but perhaps mostly, social reasons (life outside of work for animal owners and calf care workers). Automated milk feeding was discussed as a possibility to achieve higher allowances. Today, however, few farms use this technology. We suggest that automated milk feeding may improve calf welfare if the technology is better adapted to the calves and the people who use it. The aim of this project is to contribute to such technology development.