The aim of this study was to evaluate lying behaviour in dairy goats before and after installation of an optimized automatic concentrated feeding system (AFS). A mixed-horned herd of Bunte Deutsche Edelziege was used. As many agonistic interactions between goats happen at the feeding place, a new automated feeding system was installed to better fulfil the needs of horned goats. Lying behaviour is an indicator to ascertain animal welfare of ruminants. In order to measure lying behaviour accelerometer technology was used and verified by video analyses. The results show an agreement of 99.62–99.93% per lying time by comparing accelerometers to video data. Over all goats, a mean ± SD lying time (LT) of 11.78 ± 1.47 h/d, a mean ± SD lying bout duration (LBD) of 0.51 ± 0.10 h/bout and a mean ± SD frequency of lying bouts (FLB) of 24.35 ± 5.57 were found. Lying behaviour follows a seasonal progression with significant lowest LBD and highest FLB in summer. With the old AFS significant differences in LBD and FLB were detected between horned and hornless goats, but with the new AFS results were adjusted. Findings suggest that changes in feeding management do not affect the general seasonal progression of lying behaviour but can affect the behavioural differences between horned and hornless dairy goats.

In general, the lying behaviour of dairy goats follows a circadian progression. As lying times might have an effect on the health, performance and welfare of dairy goats, housing conditions and management practices should follow circadian behavioural patterns. In the present study, a mixed horned herd of Bunte Deutsche Edelziege was used. Goats were housed in a commercial dairy goat farm in south Germany. During two lactation periods, 20 goats in each period were fitted with an accelerometer to detect lying behaviour. To analyse the accelerometer data, a mixed linear model was used. The highest frequencies of lying bouts (FLBs) occurred in the afternoon, and the lowest ones occurred during milking. Generally, the least square means ± SE of the FLB counts per goat ranged between 1.72 ± 0.07 (20:00–21:59 P.M.) and 2.87 ± 0.07 (12:00–13:59 P.M.). The longest lying bouts (LBD) occurred at night, and lying bouts remained relatively short in the afternoon between milking times. The maximum LBD was 52.20 ± 0.01 min/bout (at night, 02:00–03:59 A.M.), and the shortest duration was 14.31 ± 0.01 min/bout (during morning milking, 08:00–09:59 A.M.). The interactions of time and month had a significant impact on FLB and LBD (p < 0.0001), and so did the interactions of horn status and time (p < 0.05). Further research is necessary to analyse the lying behaviour of dairy goats in more detail to improve management practices.