FIXED-INTERVAL CONDITIONED FEED INTAKE IN SWINE AND CATTLE

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to measure the influence of scheduled meal times on some behavior and production variables in beef cattle and swine. Ninety-six Yorkshire gilts in one experiment and 32 Hereford heifers in a second study were each housed in groups of four in pens equipped with individual electronic feedgates. The treatment (meal-fed) swine and cattle (T) had access to feed for 20 and 30 min, respectively, every 4 h. The control animals (C) had ad libitum access to feed. The meal-fed animals had to learn the initiation of a specified meal period through the use of a fixed-interval reinforcement schedule. Discriminative cues of a light and buzzer were used to facilitate the conditioning process. The behavioral data indicated that both species were able to be conditioned to the scheduled meal periods by the second day of the trial. The meal-feeding schedule with swine caused the treatment pigs to spend more (P < 0.05) time in walking activity (T = 124 min, C = 98 min) and less time resting (T = 1164 min, C = 1210 min). The meal-feeding system caused the cattle to spend less time (P < 0.05) in eating activity (T = 135 min, C = 176 min) and more time standing (T = 409 min, C = 342 min). Both species preferred to spend the majority of their feeding activity during the day (66 and 60% for pigs and cattle, respectively). For both species no statistically significant difference was found between the two treatment groups for production variables, but there appeared to be positive trends in favour of the meal-feeding system in beef cattle. Key words: Swine, cattle, conditioning, meal-feeding, feed intake