Milk yield affects time budget of dairy cows in tie-stalls

Abstract

Effective selection in breeding programs and improved management has increased the milk production per cow. However, the effects of the increased yield on behavior have not yet been clarified. We investigated the effect of milk yield on the time budget of 29 Finnish Ayrshire cows in the same stage of lactation kept in tie-stalls. The time spent lying, eating, ruminating, lying inactive without ruminating, and lying with the neck muscles relaxed, as well as the milk yield of primiparous and multiparous cows were recorded for 2d. The effects of milk yield and parity on behavior were analyzed with mixed models. The mean milk yield was 38.3 kg (SD 7.8) per day. Higher-yielding cows spent more time ruminating while standing and less time lying than lower-yielding cows. The latency to lie inactive without ruminating after lying down decreased as milk yield increased and it was shorter in primiparous compared with multiparous cows. Multiparous cows ruminated more while lying than primiparous cows. High milk yield cows spent a shorter time lying and they fell asleep (lay with neck relaxed) sooner. The degree of daily milk yield was associated with modifications in behavior and cows with high milk production had less lying time even with free access to lie down in the tie-stall.

Can automated measures of lying time help assess lameness and leg lesions on tie-stall dairy farms?

“…The median lying time of 12.5 h is similar to the 13 h suggested as the amount of time lying down that cows are motivated to work for . Some of the very large variation between cows was related to parity and stage of lactation agreeing with previous research (Norring et al, 2012;Vasseur et al, 2012). The daily duration of time spent lying down increased as DIM increased, mainly due to an increase in mean bout duration, while older cows had a reduced frequency of lying bouts than younger ones.…”

“…Some of the variation between farms is due to milk yield, with cows on the higher producing farms lying down for longer than cows on lower producing farms. This is the opposite from the results of Norring et al (2012) who reported that high producing cows in tie-stall farms lay down for less time than low producing cows. Possible explanations for this contradictory finding could be sample size, cattle breed or stage of lactation as the findings from Norring et al (2012) were based on a study of 29 Finnish Ayrshire cows in their 8th week of lactation.…”

“…This is the opposite from the results of Norring et al (2012) who reported that high producing cows in tie-stall farms lay down for less time than low producing cows. Possible explanations for this contradictory finding could be sample size, cattle breed or stage of lactation as the findings from Norring et al (2012) were based on a study of 29 Finnish Ayrshire cows in their 8th week of lactation. Some of the variation in lying times of the current study is due to the stage of lactation of the cows in the sample, with farms with cows more advanced in lactation having a longer duration of lying down than those earlier in lactation, similar to findings by Vasseur et al (2012).…”

“…To meet their nutritional requirements dairy cows in tie-stalls will spend approximately 4 h/d eating (Haley et al, 2001; Table 3 Pearson correlations (and probability) between the median of the daily duration of time spent lying down, the frequency of bouts of lying down and the mean duration of bouts of lying down of 100 farms with the farm medians for herd size, annual milk yield, DIM, and parity, and the farm prevalence (% cows) of lameness, hock injuries, and knee injuries and % cows that are either lame or have a hock lesion, knee lesion. Norring et al, 2012) and with other behavioral priorities such as drinking and with time taken for cows to be milked it is surprising that some cows spent so much time lying down. At the cow level, we found no relationship between lameness and the measures of lying time, which is in contrast to what is most often reported for cows in free stalls (Blackie et al, 2011;Chapinal et al, 2009;Ito et al, 2010).…”

Effect of milking frequency on the behavior and productivity of lactating dairy cows

“…In the present study, 3 large peaks in rumination activity were observed throughout the day, coinciding with the periods of lowest feeding activity. Norring et al (2012) observed that …”