Effect on Heifer Feeding Preference of Adding Flavor or Pelleting a Dairy Meal

Operant conditioning procedures were used to evaluate animal preferences among commercial dairy meals and pellets (crumbles) with and without added flavoring agent Firanor-36, and each of these feeds was compared with barley.Five nulliparous Friesian or Friesian:Jersey cross yearling heifers were experimental subjects.Concurrent, variable-interval 90-s schedules allowed heifer access to each of the paired feeds once every 90 s average.Daily sessions were for 20 mint and an average feed comparison trial was 19 days.Preference ranking of feeds based on response proportions (left plate: total) was barley > plain crumbles > flavored crumbles > plain meal > flavored meal.Pellets were preferred over ground meal.Little preference was evident between barley and pelleted meals.