STUDIES ON SUCKLING BEHAVIOUR PATTERN OF CALVES IN GIR BREED OF COW

The suckling behavior of every individual calf is different. In order to determine patterns of various suckling traits and their effect on growth rate of the new born calves from 0 to 15 days of age, the study was conducted on suckling behavior of 13 new born Gir calves of Gir herd, maintained at Kasturba Gandhi National Memorial Trust, Dairy Farm Kasturbagram Khandwa Road, Indore MP. The number of attempt to teat seeking was analyzed it was found to be 8.94 ± 0.57 times. On the basis of sex, the studies reveals that the male calves required lesser attempt to teat seeking (6.11 ± 0.86) as compared to female calves (11.77 ± 0.82.). Further the season wise studies showed that the summer born calves searched the udder in lesser attempts (7.33 ± 0.33) then those born in winter (10.54 ± 0.78). The sex wise effect on duration from placing the calf nearby cow to holding of teat by calf shows that male calves took longer duration (216.75 ± 2.18 minutes) to hold the udder for first time than that of female calves (121.00 ± 2.08). Sex wise studies showed that male calves required lesser stroke for letting down of milk (1.86 ± 0.35) than female ones (2.81 ± 0.33times). The effect of suckling traits on growth rate up to 45 days of their life showed that it had significant effect on growth rate at 30th days of age and there is no significant effect had exert at 15th and 45th days of age of Gir calves