Supplemental Material: Assessing effects of dietary and milking frequency changes and injection of cabergoline during dry-off on hunger in dairy cows using 2 feed thwarting tests

Franchi, Guilherme Amorim; Herskin, Mette S.; Tucker, Cassandra B.; Larsen, M.; Jensen, Margit Bak

doi:10.17632/5vzt4f9g3x.1

Cited by 1 publication

(9 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This duration was chosen because it was the median time period taken by cows to put their heads over any locked feed bin after the end of the feed delivery during pilot testing. No relationship between the feed delivery duration and frequencies of attempts to feed and vocalizations per 35 min, as well as latency to feed, on each test day were found (Franchi et al, 2021).…”

Section: Procedures and Testingmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…The enrollment occurred biweekly in batches of 1 to 6 cows, depending on available cows, resulting in 36 successive batches [1 nonexperimental companion dry cow was kept with the experimental cow in case of n = 1 (3 batches)]. Thus, 2 to 6 cows were housed in an experimental home pen (Franchi et al, 2021) in the same barn as the resident pens from d −7 to 7 relative to the dry-off day. From d −14 to −8 relative to the dry-off day, cows were fed ad libitum a normal lactation partially mixed ration (PMR; NE L : 6.59 MJ/kg of DM) in computerized feed bins (Insentec B.V.) and were milked at an interval of a minimum of 8 h (7 h for primiparous cows) or 9 kg of milk per milking in an automatic milking system (DeLaval AB).…”

Section: Study Populationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A total of 115 cows were used for the testing, as 4 cows were excluded from the study before testing due to lameness (n = 2) or mastitis (n = 2). The 4 excluded cows were evenly distributed among treatments (Franchi et al, 2021). On d −14 relative to the dry-off day, cows weighed (mean ± SD) 778 ± 77 kg, were 225 ± 6 d in pregnancy, and yielded 26 ± 6 kg of milk per day.…”

Section: Study Populationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…During this 35-min period, experimental cows could hear nonexperimental feed bins opening and see cows in neighboring pens feed. One neighboring pen was adjacent to the experimental home pen (Franchi et al, 2021), and the second neighboring pen was on the opposite side of the corridor to the automatic milking system. During the 35-min period, 1 familiar experimenter stood silently in front of the feed bins, approximately 4 m away, and recorded attempts to feed and vocalizations of each cow.…”

Section: Procedures and Testingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Test B: Feed-Thwarting Test with Concentrate. Between approximately 0830 and 1100 h on d −5 and 2 relative to the dry-off day, cows were individually subjected to the second feed-thwarting test, which took place in a (length × width) 6.3 × 4 m pen (Franchi et al, 2021) adjacent to the experimental home pen, permitting visual contact to peers. The first test day comprised 2 phases, habituation and testing, and only testing was conducted on the second test day.…”

Section: Procedures and Testingmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Assessing effects of dietary and milking frequency changes and injection of cabergoline during dry-off on hunger in dairy cows using 2 feed-thwarting tests

Franchi

Herskin

Tucker

et al. 2021

Journal of Dairy Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We investigated the single and combined effects of 2 feeding levels (normal lactation diet vs. energy-reduced diet, both fed for ad libitum intake) and 2 daily milking frequencies (twice vs. once) during 1 wk before the dryoff day (d 0), as well as an intramuscular injection of either a dopamine agonist (cabergoline; Velactis, Ceva Santé Animale; labeled for use only with abrupt dry-off, e.g., no reduction in feeding level or milking frequency before the last milking) or saline after the last milking on d 0 on the feeding motivation of clinically healthy, loose-housed, pregnant, lactating Holstein cows. From d 0, all cows were fed the same dry-cow diet for ad libitum intake. Cows were subjected to 2 feed-thwarting tests, a test in the home pen using their diets (test A: d −6, −1, and 1; during 35 min when the feed bins were filled, but locked) and another test carried out in an adjacent pen in which access to concentrate provided in a familiar plastic box was blocked by a wire-mesh lid (test B: d −5 and 2). In test A, we recorded how often cows attempted to feed per 35 min, whether cows vocalized during the 35-min period, and latency to feed within 300 s after feed bins were unlocked. In test B, we recorded latency to approach either of 2 familiar boxes (the wire-mesh box and an identical open box with a small portion of concentrate) within 600 s and how often cows directed behaviors toward the wiremesh box (number of occurences/5 min). On d −6 (test A), no clear differences in feeding motivation among treatments were found. On d −5 and −1, cows fed the energy-reduced diet displayed a higher probability of vocalizing (test A), were more than 50% quicker to feed (test A), were approximately 5× quicker to approach a box (test B), and directed 60% more behavior toward the wire-mesh box (test B) than cows fed the normal diet. Moreover, cows fed the energy-reduced diet attempted to feed approximately 75% more on d −1 compared with d −6 (test A). On d 2 (test B), cows previously fed the normal diet directed 40% more behavior toward the wire-mesh box than cows previously fed the energy-reduced diet. Reducing feeding level, either before or on the dry-off day, resulted in consistently increased feeding motivation, interpreted as a sign of hunger. No clear effects of change in milking frequency, singly or combined with reduced diet energy density, on feeding motivation were found before d 0. Whereas, on d 2, cows previously milked twice daily were quicker to approach a box than cows previously milked once daily. Cows injected with cabergoline attempted to feed more, but showed lower probability of vocalizing compared with saline-injected cows (d 1; test A), irrespective of treatment before d 0. The effects of cabergoline on feeding motivation are not easily interpreted and warrant further investigation. From a hunger perspective, reducing milking frequency rather than diet energy density seems to be a less negative management to reduce milk production before dry-off.

show abstract

Section: Procedures and Testingmentioning

confidence: 85%

Section: Study Populationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Study Populationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Procedures and Testingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Procedures and Testingmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations