Effects of a fine needle liver biopsy on the behavior and milk production of postpartum dairy cows

The effect of temperament and responsiveness towards humans on the behavior, physiology and milk production of multi-parous dairy cows in a familiar and novel milking environment

Grazing behaviour, intake, rumen function and milk production of dairy cows offered Lolium perenne containing different levels of water-soluble carbohydrates

Short communication: Associations of feeding behavior and milk production in dairy cows

The Effect of Silage and Concentrate Type on Intake Behavior, Rumen Function, and Milk Production in Dairy Cows in Early and Late Lactation

Behavioural response to humans and the productivity of commercial dairy cows

Restricting dairy cow access time to pasture in autumn: The effects on milk production, grazing behaviour and DM intake of late lactation dairy cows

Effect of lactation trimester and parity on eating behavior, milk production and efficiency traits of dairy cows

Abstract. Observation of animal behavior in dairy farms is necessary for precision livestock farming as well as to prevent ailments that may affect the herd. Heat stress in dairy farms has been reported to be a serious problem that leads to the drastic decline in milk production and fertility of dairy cows. In recent studies, wearable devices were used to monitor the behavior of individual dairy cows. However, such kinds of contact devices may affect the behavior of the dairy cows for several reasons. Therefore, designing a non-contact system that can monitor the behavior of dairy cows is recommended. In this work, an embedded imaging system that can monitor the feeding behavior of dairy cows was developed. The system includes cameras that were fixed in front of the feeding area to acquire cow face images. Cow face detection and recognition were performed on the acquired images using a deep convolution neural network (CNN) to record feeding behavior and identify individual cow faces. The cow face detector has an F1-score of 0.971 based on validation with a static image testing dataset. Meanwhile, the cow face recognition model was also validated with an average F1-score of 0.85 on 19 different cows. Finally, the predictions of feeding time were compared with the manual observation with the 0.7802 without the cows having lower recall from the recognition results. In the future, combining the feeding time and temperature and humidity index can be a health indicator of individual cows.

Rumen-protected lysine supplementation increased milk production in dairy cows fed a lysine-deficient diet

The objective of the study was to quantify the effects on dry matter intake (DMI), nutrient digestibility, gas exchange, milk production, and milk quality in dairy cows fed fresh grass harvested at different maturity stages. Sixteen Danish Holstein cows in mid-lactation were divided into 4 blocks and used in 4 incomplete 4 × 2 Latin squares with 2 periods of 21 d. The cows received 1 of 4 treatments in each period, resulting in 8 cows per treatment, as follows: grass-clover silage supplemented with 6 kg/d concentrate pellets (SILc), fresh grass harvested at late maturity stage supplemented with 6 kg/d concentrate pellets (LATc), fresh grass harvested at late maturity stage (LAT), and fresh grass harvested at early maturity stage (ERL). The cows were housed in tiestalls and milked twice daily. The cows had ad libitum access to the forage, and concentrate pellets were divided into equal amounts and fed separately in the morning and afternoon. Fecal samples were collected to determine apparent total-tract digestibility, and samples of rumen fluid were collected for determination of short chain fatty acid composition. Halters were used for measuring eating and rumination time. Gas exchange was measured in open-circuit respiration chambers. Total DMI was higher in LATc and ERL (16.9 ± 0.45 and 15.5 ± 0.39 kg/d, respectively) compared with LAT (14.1 ± 0.42 kg/d). Relative to SILc, cows fed fresh grass experienced a convex pattern in DMI during the experiment. The changes in DMI were related to changes in leaf to stem ratio, fiber concentration, and organic matter digestibility determined in vitro in samples of the fresh grass harvested throughout the experiment. The apparent total-tract digestibility of organic matter was higher in SILc and LAT compared with LATc. Methane yield was lower for LATc compared with LAT (19.5 ± 0.61 vs. 22.6 ± 0.55 g of CH4/kg of DMI), and was not different between LAT and ERL. Compared with LAT, milk yield was higher for ERL (21.1 ± 1.14 vs. 23.4 ± 1.11 kg/d) and energy-corrected milk (ECM) yield was higher for LATc (21.5 ± 0.99 vs. 25.3 ± 1.03 kg/d). We detected no differences in milk or ECM yield between SILc and LATc. Milk protein yield was higher and milk fat concentration was lower in LATc compared with LAT. The fatty acid percentages of ∑C4-C14:1 and ∑C16 in milk were higher for SILc compared with LATc, signifying pronounced de novo synthesis. The n-6:n-3 ratio in milk fatty acids was lower for SILc and LAT compared with LATc, indicating improved nutritional quality for SILc and LAT. However, retinol concentration in milk was lower in SILc compared with all other treatments. The study implies that feeding silage instead of fresh grass has no effect on DMI, ECM yield, or CH4 yield, and that concentrate supplementation can increase milk production, affects milk quality, and reduces the effect on climate, whereas feeding less mature grass increases DMI and milk yield, but has no effect on CH4 yield.

Three change‐over experiments were conducted to determine the effect on ad libitum silage intake and milk production in dairy cows of treatment of barley supplements with an acid‐formaldehyde reagent designed to reduce the rate of starch and protein digestion in the rumen. In Experiment 1 there were six dietary treatments consisting of silage with supplements of 4·0,6·5 and 9·0 kg d‐1 of barley given untreated or treated with formaldehyde reagent (8·1 t‐1). In Experiment 2 there were four dietary treatments consisting of silage with supplements of barley (7·0 kg d‐1) or barley and fishmeal (6·0 kg d‐1 plus 1·0 kg d‐1), with the barley untreated or treated with formaldehyde reagent (15·1t‐1). In Experiment 3 there were four dietary treatments consisting of silage given alone or with supplements of barley (9·0 kg d‐1). Treated barley (15·1 t‐1, 9·0 kg d‐1) and barley plus sodium bicarbonate (9·0 kg d‐1 plus 25·0 g d‐1).Treatment of the barley supplement with formaldehyde reagent had no effect on silage intake or milk production in Experiment 1 where the rate of application of the reagent was low and the basal silage‐barley diet was limiting in rumendegradable nitrogen. However, in Experiments 2 and 3 treated barley supplements were associated with improvements in silage intake and milk production. As compared with corresponding control diets containing untreated barley, increases in silage intake ranged from 0 to 0·16 of the control value, whilst associated increases in the yields of milk, milk fat, milk protein and lactose were 0·077–0·089, 0·016–0·026, 0·092–0·118 and 0·080–0·092 of the control value. These responses are discussed in relation to the increases in silage intake and milk production observed with fishmeal supplementation of the diet in Experiment 2 and inclusion of sodium bicarbonate in Experiment 3.

Free-stalls for dairy cows promote cleanliness, provide cows with a defined space to lie down, and decrease labor and bedding required for maintenance. However, current stall features can restrict behavior and reduce stall use. The objective of this study was to assess the short-term effect of a novel free-stall design (flexible single-bar partition, no neck rail, increased slope) on stall cleanliness and the lying behavior, rumination, milk production, and preferences of dairy cows in comparison to standard free-stalls (metal loop partitions, neck rail). In the first experiment, 60 Holstein cows were randomly divided into two groups and switched between standard and novel stalls in a replicated crossover design with four 7-day periods. Lying behavior and rumination were recorded continuously. Milk yields were recorded 2x/day, and stall cleanliness scores were collected on the last four days of weeks 3 and 4. The second experiment was a 6-day preference test where 14 cows from experiment 1 were given free access to 16 standard and 16 novel stalls. Lying behavior was recorded continuously. On day 6, standing, perching, and intention, lying, and rising movements were recorded. In experiment 1, cows spent 12 min less time lying down (14.1 vs 14.3 ± 0.48 h/d), had one fewer lying bouts (8.8 vs 9.8 ± 0.23 bouts/d), and had longer lying bouts by 6 min (1.4 vs 1.5 ± 0.05 h/bout) in novel stalls. Rumination time (547.3 vs 548.9 ± 4.66 min/d) and milk yield (35.0 vs 35.2 ± 0.51 kg/d) did not differ between stall types. However, novel stalls were more than twice as soiled as standard stalls (32.8 vs 14.2 ± 1.38% of rear half soiled). In experiment 2, the cows most recently housed in the novel stalls showed a clear preference for lying down in those stalls, whereas cows most recently housed in standard stalls showed no preference. Intention and lying down movements were longer in standard stalls when other cows were present in diagonally opposite stalls, but were similar between stall types when not occupied. All cows preferred standing in novel stalls. Novel stalls may have improved stall use compared to standard free-stalls, and the design requires further development to address cleanliness concerns. Future work is required to provide comfortable stalls without sacrificing cleanliness.

Meta-analysis of the effect of pregrazing pasture mass on pasture intake, milk production, and grazing behavior of dairy cows strip-grazing temperate grasslands

Three separate changeover experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of the amount of rolled barley and time of access to silage on the voluntary intake, eating behaviour and production of dairy cows. In Experiment 1, twenty‐four milking cows were used to compare the effect of 4 1 and 6 1 kg d−1 rolled barley on voluntary intake and milk production. In Experiment 2, fourteen cows were used in a comparison of the effect on voluntary intake and milk production of 5‐ and 22‐h access to silage. Experiment 3 measured the effects on intake of silage of 2 and 4 kg d−1 rolled barley and of 5‐ and 22‐h access to silage. In Experiment I, increasing the amount of barley eaten reduced intake of silage by 0–50 kg dry matter (DM) per kg barley DM but in Experiment 3 with 5‐h access to silage there was no significant difference between the amounts of silage eaten with 2 and 4 kg d−1 barley. However, in Experiment 3 when allowed 22‐h access to silage, the replacement rate was 0–53 kg DM silage per kg DM barley. Increasing access from 5 to 22 h increased silage intake by 37% in Experiment 1 and by 27% in Experiment 3. Milk yield was significantly increased by 4% when extra barley was given in Experiment 1 but there was no significant effect in Experiment 3. Increasing the time of access to silage led to an 11% increase in milk yield in Experiment 2 but there was no significant effect in Experiment 3. There was much variation between cows in the depression of silage intake per kg change in barley DM eaten with coefficients of variation of 131% and 109% in Experiments 1 and 3, respectively. When allowed access to silage for 22 h daily, on average, each cow spent 180 min eating silage in ten meals, although there was appreciable variation between cows in eating behaviour. The amount of barley did not affect the cows' rate of eating silage nor the duration of eating.

Research on the effect of supplementary light on the production of dairy cows (Tucker, 1985) has shown that it increases the milk production and feed intake of cows receiving less than 12 hours natural daylength, but it is not clear whether this arises from a behavioural stimulation to longer feeding times or a physiological response to light. In addition, although the reproduction of dairy cows has been reported to be seasonal with no effect of photoperiod on LH or FSH production (Rzepkowskl et al 1982), no studies have been made of the effects of supplementary light on oestrous activity and behaviour.