Throughout agricultural history, the relationship between humans and calves has been intimate and hands-on. In traditional dairy farming, it was common for farmers to raise orphaned calves by hand, bottle-feeding them multiple times daily. These calves often became exceptionally tame and would follow their human caretakers around the farm, occasionally attempting to suckle on available body parts.
While group housing is excellent for socialization, putting calves together immediately after bucket-feeding drastically increases the incidence of cross-sucking. Calves will naturally target the nearest moving object or peer. The Risks of Cross-Sucking on the Farm calf sucking man on farm
allow calves to drink in small portions throughout the day, similar to nursing from their mother. Individual Monitoring : Advanced feeders like the JFC Evolution Throughout agricultural history