Exploring dairy farmers’ and farm staff’s perspectives on the use of automated milk feeders for calves: A qualitative interview study addressing calf welfare and farmer well-being

Abstract

Restricted milk feeding is a critical welfare concern in dairy production. Automated milk feeders (AMF) may help farms provide appropriate milk rations without adding to the workload. Our study aimed to understand how the use of AMF affects milk-feeding conditions and work practices important for calf welfare, as well as the work and social lives of dairy farmers and farm staff. We conducted one focus group interview and 11 semi-structured interviews with owners or staff on 14 Swedish AMF dairy farms. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. We identified six themes that describe participants’ experiences of using AMF: Calf welfare, Onboarding the calf, Disease transmission and detection, Managing the AMF, Task and time allocation, and Experience of work and work engagement . Although participants generally reported a sense of vulnerability in the event of failure and dissatisfaction with the distributor’s service, they were overall highly satisfied with the system. Our findings indicate that AMF use can overcome an important barrier to achieving higher milk allowances by enabling more frequent milk meals with reduced labour and ensuring that calves do not experience prolonged hunger. Based on our findings, we suggest that if the main challenges for calves (disease transmission and competition) and people (technology management and disease detection) are sufficiently addressed, AMF can improve calf welfare and social sustainability in dairy calf care.