Assessing cow comfort: effects of two floor types and two tie stall designs on the behaviour of lactating dairy cows

Abstract

Our objective was to test the effects of two types of stall flooring and two tie stall designs on the behaviour of dairy cows. Using two cross-over designs, 16 lactating Holstein cows were housed for 3-week periods in each of four tie stalls to compare the effects of concrete versus mattress flooring, and a narrow versus a wide stall front opening. When cows were housed on a mattress flooring they increased their total lying time by 1.8 h per day (51.0 versus 43.4% time per day). The duration of individual lying bouts was longer on concrete flooring (78 versus 62 min) and the same was true for the duration of individual bouts of standing (80 versus 48 min). On mattress flooring cows stood up and lay down more often than on concrete (28 versus 20 per day, respectively). On concrete cows spent more time standing without eating (35.2 versus 28.1% of sampling observations). Cows consistently made use of the additional space provided with the wide stall front opening, placing their head in the manger area during 70.6% of lying observations compared to only 43.4% of observations in the narrow stall front. However, measures of general activity were not significantly different for the two stall designs. Cows spent similar amounts of time eating and consumed similar quantities of feed in all four tie stalls. Our results suggest a lack of comfort may be apparent in reduced time spent lying and a subsequent increase in time spent standing without eating. A lower frequency of standing and lying and an increase in the bout duration of lying suggests that cows on concrete flooring have difficulty standing up and lying down.