Organic calves must be allowed the opportunity to perform suckling behaviour

The rules for meeting calves' suckling needs are the same for organic calves as for conventional calves.

By Birgit Ingvorsen

The suckling needs of calves that are not suckling directly on their mother or a foster cow must be met with the help of artificial teats.

Calves' suckling needs can be met by, for example, milk feeding with a teat bar.

To fulfil the requirements, one of the following options can be used:
• Milk feeder buckets with artificial teats
• Milk feeder bars with artificial teats
• Automatic milk feeders with artificial teats
• Access to dummy teats

In the case of dummy teats, the teat must be placed in the immediate vicinity of the milk, there must be at least one teat per calf, and the teat must be available for at least 20 minutes after the milk is dispensed.

When calves have their suckling needs fulfilled, they perform less abnormal behavior such as sucking on each other and barn equipment, which lowers disease transmission and indicates better welfare.

Ensuring the opportunity to fulfil suckling needs are included in the annual organic inspection, and it is also a focus area in the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration's welfare checks in cattle herds. The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration now inspects 10% of all cattle herds annually - previously it was 5%.

Read more about calves' suckling needs in this theme (landbrugsinfo.dk) (Danish).