Abstract
The aim of this study was to characterize calving behavior of dairy cows and to compare the duration and frequency of behaviors for assisted and unassisted dairy cows at calving. Behavioral data from nine hours prior to calving were collected for 35 Holstein-Friesian dairy cows. Cows were continuously monitored under 24 h video surveillance. The behaviors of standing, lying, walking, shuffle, eating, drinking and contractions were recorded for each cow until birth. A generalized linear mixed model was used to assess differences in the duration and frequency of behaviors prior to calving for assisted and unassisted cows. The nine hours prior to calving was assessed in three-hour time periods. The study found that the cows spent a large proportion of their time either lying (0.49) or standing (0.35), with a higher frequency of standing (0.36) and shuffle (0.26) bouts than other behaviors during the study. There were no differences in behavior between assisted and unassisted cows. During the three-hours prior to calving, the duration and bouts of lying, including contractions, were higher than during other time periods. While changes in behavior failed to identify an association with calving assistance, the monitoring of behavioral patterns could be used as an alert to the progress of parturition.
Highlights
There has been increased interest in the care and housing of cows with concerns for cow welfare given the increasing size of the average dairy herd across developed countries [1].Animal welfare concerns are commonly directed at farm animals, and in particular housed and more intensive production systems with large numbers of animals [2]
The study found no difference in duration or frequency of behaviors between cows that had an assisted or unassisted calving
This study found that when monitoring calving the duration and frequency of lying and contraction bouts increased in the last three hours prior to birth compared to other time periods studied
Summary
There has been increased interest in the care and housing of cows with concerns for cow welfare given the increasing size of the average dairy herd across developed countries [1].Animal welfare concerns are commonly directed at farm animals, and in particular housed and more intensive production systems with large numbers of animals [2]. There has been increased interest in the care and housing of cows with concerns for cow welfare given the increasing size of the average dairy herd across developed countries [1]. To assist a stockperson at calving, and given the importance of a successful birth and potential need for intervention, a number of sensor technologies have been developed. These technologies have largely been based on accelerometers and movement detection [3,4], or an alternative is computer vision [5,6], which have been developed to support farm management and improve animal health and wellbeing, and productivity. The frequency of lying, standing and tail movements of an animal have been found to change in the period prior to calving in both dairy [7] and beef cattle [8], and may give some indication of the need for assistance
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