Finishing cattle are fed high-concentrate diets with minimal forage included. With the health complications that can arise from rapid consumption of concentrate, it is surprising that these animals will choose to consume a diet that is similar or even lower in forage than a typical finishing ration. Studies of diet selections indicate finishing cattle choose between 8 to 20% roughage, but tests of motivation, how much they want forage in their diet, are rare and have not included rumen health. The objective of this dissertation was to measure the motivation of finishing cattle to access forage when fed a high-concentrate diet and in the context of reticulorumen pH. I designed two novel measures of motivation for feedstuffs in finishing cattle and carried out the first experiment that measured the importance of forage while also monitoring reticulorumen pH. Using a thwarting test (Chapter 1) and then an electric current as an aversive stimulus (Chapters 2 and 3), I found that finishing cattle interacted with three different types of forage when offered it in addition to their primary diet: beardless wheat hay (78% of animals tested interacted when offered; Chapter 1), alfalfa hay (75%; Chapter 2), and Sudan grass hay (64%; Chapter 3). Animals were not motivated to access an empty bunk behind an electrified barrier (Chapter 2) and showed reduced motivation for additional feed as current increased, demonstrating the effectiveness of electric current for measuring motivation (Chapters 2 and 3). I also observed contrafreeloading for an additional offering of the primary diet (Chapters 2 and 3). Despite previous research in self-selection of high-concentrate diets by feedlot cattle, the contrafreeloading observed in Chapter 3 was unexpected since chronic, low reticulorumen pH was widespread in the study population. These findings support earlier work that show finishing cattle prefer a diet high in concentrate, with minimal roughage. However, these results also raise questions about the function contrafreeloading serves for these animals, as the behaviour has now been observed for both high- and low-energy rations. Further research is needed to elucidate the implications for animal welfare of contrafreeloading in feedlot cattle.

The weaning period is often regarded as one of the most challenging times in a beef calf’s life where they must establish independence from their dam. Rather than abruptly severing the maternal-offspring bond, alternate weaning methods were developed to make this process more gradual. In Chapter 1, I introduced and compared different approaches for weaning beef calves in the United States. Two-stage methods, such as fence line and nose flap were developed for reducing the behavioral and physiological stress response that calves undergo by providing a physical barrier, either a fence or nose flap, that allows the calf to be weaned from milk prior to separation from the dam. Although these are both thought to have a net positive effect on calf welfare, the objective of the current study was to explore both positive and negative consequences. In Chapter 2, one potential tradeoff made when utilizing a nose flap for weaning – injuries was investigated. While a nose flap has been shown to be beneficial in minimizing the behavioral distress response, there are several types commercially available, and recent findings showed that they cause injuries on the calf’s nasal septum. The objectives were to (1) identify if a nose flap created injuries on the nasal septum, (2) explore whether factors like calf body weight or septum size could be used to predict the incidence of injuries or flap loss; and (3) create a binomial scoring system that could use to reliably score characteristics observed. While no injuries were observed in calves that had not worn the nose flap, it was found that after 7 d of wearing them, injury was ubiquitous at the time of removal and still visible at least 6 d afterwards. Injuries and flap loss were widespread; therefore, body weight or septum size of the calf had no effect. Wound descriptions were scored in duplicate by a trained observer (damage, impression, and blood; 97%, 91%, and 100% agreement between first and second evaluations, respectively), indicating that scoring system proposed is repeatable. The outcomes of this research have the potential to improve beef calf welfare and provide a valuable basis for industry recommendations regarding weaning methods for calves. Injuries inflicted from a nose flap may counteract the benefits to this method, making it less advantageous than other two-stage alternatives, like fence line weaning.

Dairy cattle are often raised in feed-restricted environments and perform abnormal repetitive behaviors (ARBs) indicative of welfare concerns under these settings. Research has commonly focused on ability to suckle milk as the driver of these behaviors, but forage restriction, and ability to chew and ruminate, has been understudied. The objectives of this dissertation were to evaluate the immediate and later-life effects of hay restriction on oral behaviors in dairy cattle. This was supported by additional goals of documenting the ways cattle use their mouths, circadian and diurnal patterns of behavior, and whether normal behaviors could be expressed abnormally. To achieve these aims, I used robust sampling and narrow behavioral definitions across all chapters. I found that access to hay in the milk-fed period increased time spent chewing, which occurred most around milk feeding, and ruminating, which was performed most overnight (Chapter 1). Hay also reduced nonnutritive oral manipulation (NNOM), a commonly scored ARB in cattle, in the immediate environment (Chapters 1 and 2), regardless of how forage was presented (Chapter 2). Behavioral differences from the milk-fed period did not persist through weaning (Chapter 1) or to the heifer stage (Chapter 3). However, tongue rolling and NNOM were more prevalent at the heifer stage than they were at calves (Chapters 2 and 3). Most behaviors were not correlated across ages (Chapter 3), and diurnal patterns of behavior also differed. While NNOM was performed most around feedings as calves (Chapter 2), it was more prevalent in the evening as heifers (Chapter 3). Across ages, many oral behaviors were expressed in extreme ways, including excessive grooming bouts, polydipsia, and possible pseudorumination (Chapters 1 and 2), and outliers were present in many of these (Chapter 3). Overall, early life access to hay appears to be important to calves, and can mediate the expression of some abnormal behaviors in the immediate environment, but this effect is short-lived. The intensity of sampling used, in terms of hours (24-h or 12-h), resolution (1-min or 5-s intervals, or continuous recording), and discrete definitions for all oral behaviors expressed, revealed more abnormality than has previously been described in dairy cattle. These results and methodology also serve as a baseline for future work elucidating the underlying cause of abnormal behavior in cattle, and appropriate interventions to improve welfare.