Effect of summer grazing on welfare of dairy cows reared in mountain tie-stall barns

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Traditional mountain farms have an important economic, social and environmental role. The Alps management system for dairy cows consists of animals kept indoors from autumn to spring, mostly in tie-stalls, and moved to mountain pasture in summer. The aim of our study was to assess the effect of mountain summer grazing on the welfare of dairy cows housed in tie-stall barns. Twenty-four farms were considered. In twelve of them, animals were reared in tie-stalls and moved to mountain pasture for three months in summer; they were visited three times: (i) four weeks before grazing during the indoor period in the stall; (ii) about three weeks after the start of grazing; and (iii) in the stall, in autumn, at least three weeks after returning from grazing. The other twelve farms kept the animals in tiestalls all year; they were visited once in autumn. Data were collected following a protocol that considers animal-based measures and structure information on the basis of Quality Welfare Consortium® indications. Data allowed the calculation of both the Animal Needs Index score (ANI 35L) and an overall assessment of the cows’ welfare obtained from three general aspects: housing, animal’s physical condition, and animal’s behaviour. Summer grazing had a significant positive effect on injuries, lameness and animal’s rising duration but a negative effect on faeces consistency. Moreover, a reduction of tongue playing was observed. The ANI 35L and the overall assessment did not show significant differences linked to summer grazing, which tended to have a positive but temporary effect on animal behaviour.