Small Project and Travel Awards
Is variety the spice of life for cows?
Cows are typically fed a monotonous diet, but would they prefer to eat a variety of food, like most humans? Could varying cows’ diet enrich their lives and reduce boredom? UFAW supported research by Dr Rebecca Meagher at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver that aims to answer these questions. The study is designed to test whether cows are motivated to work for access to different types of food when given the choice between a varied diet for which they have to work to gain access and their conventional diet which is freely available. If cows choose the varied diet even when they have to work to access it this will strongly suggest that they enjoy variety. If Rebecca’s experiment does show that cows prefer variety in their diets it could be simple to provide different types of food to commercial dairy herds. The research could also indicate whether cows prefer more variety in their lives in general.
