Milk-sucking in dairy cattle in loose housing in Slovakia

Intersucking in dairy cows under large-scale farm conditions in loose housing is a problem of great economic importance. The aim of the work was to study the occurrence and differences in behaviour of deviant and normal cows and to look for reasons for this behavioural anomaly. In an ethological investigation carried out on six large-scale farms with loose housing, an average of 5.15% of cows were found to be milk-sucking. A lower percentage of milk-suckers were on farms where the calves suckled naturally from the udder. No differences were found either in overall general behaviour or amount of social activities during 12-h observations between milk-suckers and normal cows. Statistical significant differences (P < 0.05) were found in the occurrence of ruminating and occurrence of social activities during the day. Amount of attacks of the normal cows peaked from 12:50 to 14:00, before feeding. Attacks of the milk-sucking cows occurs evenly throughout the day, without marked peak. Occurrence of contacts to udder of the milk-sucking cows during the day was different from occurrence of contacts of the normal cows. These results shaw that differences in the daily regime may be an aid in identifying milk-sucking dairy cows. The research indicates that milk sucking is a topical problem in Slovak dairies. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science BN. All rights reserved.