Individual differences in behaviour and in adrenocortical activity in beef-suckler cows

Mülleder, Cornelia; Palme, Rupert; Menke, C; Waiblinger, Susanne

doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2003.08.007

Cited by 35 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…All first and last standing events, and the respective preceding and following mounts, were confirmed by one additional video observer. Other individual social behaviors (Mülleder et al, 2003) recorded included head butt, body butt, push away, chase up, threat, winner, avoid, play rub (head play and head rub), head lean, social lick, and rump lick.…”

Section: Behavior Recording and Data Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Avoid: I avoids R, although R does not visibly threaten I directly beforehand (Mülleder et al, 2003: I avoids R, although R does not threaten I directly beforehand). Rump lick: I licks rump region of R (Esslemont et al, 1980: licking back-licking of the back half of the recipient).…”

Section: Behavior Recording and Data Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Chin rest: Rests the chin on the rump of the other cow (Esslemont et al, 1980: chin-resting-resting of chin on the back half of the recipient). Play rub: Rubs head against other cow (head play and head rub), except chin resting (Mülleder et al, 2003: head rub-initiator rubs the head on receiver). Chin rest is not excluded in the latter definition of head rub.…”

Section: Behavior Recording and Data Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It was difficult to differentiate between head play and head rub and therefore both were recorded as play rub. Head butt, body butt, push away, chase up, threat, win, and avoid were all regarded as agonistic behaviors (Mülleder et al, 2003). The identities of cows initiating and receiving individual behavior traits were recorded, except for flehmen, bellow, head butt, and play rub, as these either involved only one cow (flehmen and bellow) or could not be categorized (head butt and play rub).…”

Section: Behavior Recording and Data Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, as anogenital sniffing and chin resting also occur in other stages of the estrous cycle (Phillips and Schofield, 1990), the challenge for the observer is to determine whether a cow exhibiting this behavior is in STE. Although more recent papers report such behavior as a prominent sign of estrus Kerbrat and Disenhaus, 2004), other social behaviors in cattle associated with estrus are not well documented (Mülleder et al, 2003;Kerbrat and Disenhaus, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Behavior of lactating Holstein-Friesian cows during spontaneous cycles of estrus

Sveberg

Refsdal²,

Erhard

et al. 2011

Journal of Dairy Science

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The objectives of the present study were to describe, in detail, behavior associated with standing estrus (STE) in lactating dairy cows and behavioral changes during complete estrous cycles. Estrus signs were monitored by continuous video recording of 20 Holstein-Friesian (HF) cows housed on an outdoor wood-chip pad during 1 estrous cycle (22 d). Other social behavior was recorded during STE and, for comparison, during 1 selected day when none of the cows were in estrus. Standing stationary when mounted was defined as the primary estrus sign. Anogenital sniff, chin rest, attempt to mount, and mount were defined as secondary estrus signs. Ovarian cyclicity was confirmed by progesterone measurements. This study reports short mean duration of STE (7.1 ± 1.44 h) and estrus (mount period; 12.9 ± 1.84 h) of the 13 cows expressing these signs. All mounting activities involved at least one cow in, or within 4 h of, STE. The most frequent sign during STE was anogenital sniff initiated, followed by chin rest received, chin rest initiated, chase up initiated, anogenital sniff received, mount initiated, head butt, mount received, attempt to mount initiated, push away received, play rub, attempt to mount received, follow initiated, threat received, flehmen, avoid, bellow, and social lick received. Standing and mounting activity in HF cows was inconsistent during estrus, indicating that other signs could be of greater use. The frequency of secondary estrus signs initiated and received increased gradually during the last 12 h before STE, revealing significant differences between periods from 4 to 6 and 1 to 3 h before STE. A considerable increase in receptive behavior (secondary estrus signs received) was identified between 1 to 3 h prior to STE and STE. Both frequent initiated and received behaviors were associated with STE. A significant decrease in the frequency of secondary estrus signs initiated and received occurred 3 h after STE. Cows in STE simultaneously predominantly chose the other standing cow as mate and expressed secondary estrus signs more frequently. Based on the results of this study, we suggest that chase up could be regarded as a reliable indicator of estrus and that the changes in proceptive (initiated) and receptive (received) behavior could be used as predictors of different stages in estrus. Knowledge of these behavioral signs may improve heat detection rates and the ability to predict the optimum breeding time for dairy cows.

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Section: Behavior Recording and Data Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Behavior Recording and Data Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%