Implications of prolonged milking time on time budgets and lying behavior of cows in large pasture-based dairy herds

Abstract

In large Australian pasture-based dairy herds, it is common for the time taken to milk a herd of cows to be up to 4 h. Cows are collected from the paddock as a group, wait in turn in the dairy yard to be milked, and then return individually to the paddock or feed pad immediately after leaving the milking parlor. In such herds, we previously found a consistent milking order, resulting in some cows being regularly away from pasture for several hours per day more than others. Increased time away from pasture may affect the time budgets of cows because of decreased opportunity for grazing or lying down. Lying behavior is a high-priority behavior for cows, and the duration of lying has been used as an important measure of their welfare. We applied activity monitors for 7 d to 15 cows toward the beginning and 15 cows toward the end of the milking order in 10 dairy herds milking 500 to 730 cows as a single group to understand the effect of extra time spent in the dairy on lying behavior. Study cows typically produced 6,000 to 8,000 L in a 300-d lactation on rotary dairy platforms with 40 to 80 units, being fed 2.5 to 6 kg of grain mix in the milking parlor daily, with the rest of the diet being supplied as pasture or forage provided in the pasture or close to the exit of the dairy. Over the 10 farms, 1,948 cow-days were available for analysis. The furthest paddocks on each farm were 1.8 to 3.5 km walking distance from the dairy. A wide range of steps were taken each day, ranging from 1,705 to 15,075 (mean = 5,916). The main predictor of the number of steps was the farm on which the cows were located. Cows that spent less than an hour waiting to be milked (and would be unlikely to have their ability to lie down affected by the milking process) laid down for a mean of 9.8 h/d. Steps walked and delay in the dairy waiting to be milked were both significantly associated with lying time, but the effect was not large. A regression model accounting for the waiting time at the dairy, steps taken, cow age, and farm was used to investigate the relationship with daily lying time. For every 1,000 steps, lying time reduced by 0.49 h; however, the number of steps explained only 1% of the variation in lying time. For every hour increase in waiting time at the dairy, lying decreased by approximately 14 min, but this explained only 14% of the variation in lying. We concluded that milking time durations of 2 to 4 h, common in large Australian pasture-based dairy herds, did not significantly affect the time budget for lying of individual cows in our study herds. Whereas the effect of long milking times does not appear to be a major risk to animal welfare in terms of lying time, the effect on cow health and production warrants further investigation.

Invited review: Lying time and the welfare of dairy cows

“…Milking time varied from 0.5 to 6.0 h/d, and an increase in milking time was associated with a 2-to 4-h/d decrease in lying time. In contrast, cows early or late in the milking order within 10 herds in Australia differed in the amount of time away from the paddock (1.4 vs. 4.5 h/d, on average), but every hour away reduced lying time by only 14 min/d (Beggs et al, 2018). Time away for milking explained only 14% of the variation in lying time in this study (Beggs et al, 2018).…”

“…In contrast, cows early or late in the milking order within 10 herds in Australia differed in the amount of time away from the paddock (1.4 vs. 4.5 h/d, on average), but every hour away reduced lying time by only 14 min/d (Beggs et al, 2018). Time away for milking explained only 14% of the variation in lying time in this study (Beggs et al, 2018). These mixed results highlight the complexity of these interactions, and other factors, such as what the cows do while standing, likely also play a role.…”

“…The mean daily duration of time spent lying down is around 11 h/d but varies among cows from less than 6 h/d to more than 16 h/d (Figure 1). Ito et al (2009) Canada 43 2,033 11.0 9.5-12.9 Thomsen et al (2012) Denmark 39 1,233 10.7 Wechsler et al (2000) Switzerland 18 10/farm 11.3 Gomez and Cook (2010) US 16~13/farm 11.9 Yunta et al (2012) Spain 10 40/farm 12.0 Thorup et al(2015) Denmark 4 200/farm 11.4 Solano et al (2016) Canada 141 40/farm 10.6 8.2-13.2 Freestall with AMS 2 Westin et al (2016) Canada 36 40/farm 11.3 9.7-13.5 Deming et al (2013) Canada 13 30/farm 10.8 Helmreich et al 2014Switzerland 4 138 10.6 9.4-11.5 King et al (2016) Canada 41 30/farm 11.5 10.1-11.7 Tiestall Charlton et al (2016) Canada 100 40/farm 12.5 10.0-15.0 Dry lots Steensels et al (2012) Israel 3 210 8.9 Tresoldi et al (2017) US 10 10-15/farm 9.0 7.4-10.6 Deep-bedded pack Endres and Barberg (2007) US 12 147 9.3 6.1-11.4 Pasture Sepúlveda-Varas et al (2014) Chile 6 274 8.5 Beggs et al (2018) Australia 10 30/farm 9.5 1 Only includes studies that examined multiple farms.…”

Relation of Subclinical Ketosis of Dairy Cows with Locomotion Behaviour and Ambient Temperature

“…Farm-specific factors such as time spent waiting to be milked [24], wintering system [25], weather [13], and other management factors need to be considered when comparing behaviour measurements from different farms or groups of animals. In housed cows, competition for space to lie down in free stables could limit the lying behaviour of some cows [26], whereas in dairy cows on pasture, competition to lie down may be less likely to disrupt normal lying behaviour due to higher space availability [27].…”

Pastoral Farming Ethics and Economics–Aligning Grazing Practices and Expectations

“…The distribution of lying time (mean 9.5 h) in pasture-farmed dairy cows (1948 cow-days across 10 farms) in large (> 500 cows kept as a single group) herds in Australia(32).…”