Resting and social behaviour of dairy heifers housed in slatted floor pens with different sized bedded lying areas

Nielsen, Lone Harder; Mogensen, Lisbeth; Krohn, Christian; Hindhede, Jens; Sørensen, Jan Tind

doi:10.1016/s0168-1591(96)01211-7

Cited by 51 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Dominance relationships in cattle are highly stable, but aggression can increase with group size, when unfamiliar animals are mixed (Bouissou et al, 2001), and when food and space are scarce (Kondo et al, 1989;Nielsen et al, 1997). Affiliative behaviour occurs when other needs, like finding food and shelter, have been met (Sato et al, 1991).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social behaviour of cattle in tropical silvopastoral and monoculture systems

Améndola

Solorio

Kú-Vera

et al. 2016

Animal

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Silvopastoral systems can be a good alternative for sustainable livestock production because they can provide ecosystem services and improve animal welfare. Most farm animals live in groups and the social organization and interactions between individuals have an impact on their welfare. Therefore, the objective of this study was to describe and compare the social behaviour of cattle (Bos indicus × Bos taurus) in a silvopastoral system based on a high density of leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala) combined with guinea grass (Megathyrsus maximus), star grass (Cynodon nlemfuensis) and some trees; with a monoculture system with C. nlemfuensis, in the region of Merida, Yucatán. Eight heifers in each system were observed from 0730 to 1530 h each day for 12 consecutive days during the dry season and 12 consecutive days during the rainy season. The animals followed a rotation between three paddocks, remaining 4 days in each paddock. The vegetation was characterized in the paddocks of the silvopastoral system to estimate the average percentage of shade provided. To make a comparison between systems, we used a t test with group dispersion, and Mann-Whitney tests with the frequency of affiliative and agonistic behaviours. We assessed differences in linearity and stability of dominance hierarchies using Landau's index and Dietz R-test, respectively. The distance of cows with respect to the centroid of the group was shorter, and non-agonistic behaviours were 62% more frequent in the intensive silvopastoral system than in the monoculture one. Heifers in the silvopastoral system had a more linear and non-random dominance hierarchy in both seasons (dry season: h' = 0.964; rainy season: h' = 0.988), than heifers in the monoculture system (dry season: h' = 0.571, rainy season: h' = 0.536). The dominance hierarchy in the silvopastoral system was more stable between seasons (R-test = 0.779) than in the monoculture system (R-test = 0.224). Our results provide the first evidence that heifers in the silvopastoral system maintain more stable social hierarchies and express more sociopositive behaviours, suggesting that animal welfare was enhanced.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social behaviour of cattle in tropical silvopastoral and monoculture systems

Améndola

Solorio

Kú-Vera

et al. 2016

Animal

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“…Postural synchrony, in which cattle lie down or stand up at the same time as other members of their herd, is seen both in animals housed indoors when enough resources are available (Faerevik et al, 2008;Gygax et al, 2007;Nielsen et al, 1997) and in those out at pasture (Benham, 1982), but the mechanisms underlying such synchrony are poorly understood (Estevez et al, 2007). There are at least two different ways in which synchrony might be achieved (Conradt and List, 2009;Gautrais et al, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synchronized lying in cattle in relation to time of day

2012

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a b s t r a c tPostural synchrony, in which cattle lie down or stand up at the same time as other members of their herd, occurs both in animals housed indoors when enough resources are available and in those out at pasture, but the mechanisms by which such synchrony is achieved are poorly understood. We report a study of 6 groups of young cattle (Bos taurus) at pasture in which our aim was to study postural synchrony at different times of day and in relation to the postures of neighbouring cattle.All of the observed groups exhibited a high degree of synchrony in lying/standing, as 70% of animals in a group exhibited the same posture over 93% of the time. Time of day had a significant effect (P E0.0046): cattle were least synchronized in the middle of the day and most synchronized in the morning and evening. With the increasing use of synchrony of lying as a measure of welfare in cattle, such temporal effects need to be taken into account.Cattle were more synchronized with the posture of a near neighbour than they were with that of a randomly chosen member of the herd (P E 0.016), suggesting that cattle were actively synchronizing their postures with that of their neighbours. These results indicate that a full understanding of the mechanisms of postural synchronization in cattle herds will need to incorporate both collective (allelomimetic) and concurrent (individual) responses.

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“…The small group sizes (six cows per group) utilized in the current study may have allowed for greater synchrony, since previous work has shown synchrony to decrease with group size (10, 13, 14). Group size was held constant in this study because our objective was to compare homogenous and heterogeneous treatment groups, and furthermore, the research facility available dictated these group sizes.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synchronization of Dairy Cows Does Not Limit the Behavioral Response to Treatment in Mixed Treatment Experimental Designs

2016

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In many research studies, animals assigned to different treatments are housed adjacently or together in a group. One critique of these designs has been the potential role of behavioral facilitation and synchronization between animals on different treatments in mixed treatment groups (heterogeneous groups). To evaluate this, we compared the synchrony of feeding behavior between dairy cows housed in heterogeneous groups to cows exposed to the same treatment simultaneously (homogenous groups). Twenty-four cows were exposed to each of the two treatments over 21 days in a replicated cross-over design. Treatments were two different schedules of timing of feed delivery: (A) feeding at milking time and (B) feeding halfway between milking times. For the last 7 days of each treatment period, feeding behavior was recorded electronically. Kappa coefficients were calculated for each animal within each group, as an estimate of agreement that any two cows within a group (i.e., each individual and each other cow in her group) would both be engaged in feeding activity for any hour of the day. The level of synchrony was similar for cows within homogenous groups (kappa = 0.31 ± 0.030) compared with cows on the same treatment within heterogeneous groups (kappa = 0.32 ± 0.037). Within heterogeneous groups, cows on the same treatment were nearly 50% more synchronized with each other than with those on the other treatment (kappa = 0.22 ± 0.029). These results suggest that synchronization of feeding behavior does not restrict our ability to impose different treatments on individual cows within a group.

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Resting and social behaviour of dairy heifers housed in slatted floor pens with different sized bedded lying areas

Cited by 51 publications

References 2 publications

Social behaviour of cattle in tropical silvopastoral and monoculture systems

Social behaviour of cattle in tropical silvopastoral and monoculture systems

Synchronized lying in cattle in relation to time of day

Synchronization of Dairy Cows Does Not Limit the Behavioral Response to Treatment in Mixed Treatment Experimental Designs

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