Influence of space allowance and milk yield level on behaviour, performance and health of dairy cows housed in strawyard and cubicle systems

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to study the effects of two space allowances and two initial milk yield levels on indicators of welfare relating to behaviour, performance and health of dairy cows housed in strawyards (experiment 1), and cubicles (experiment 2). The experiments were carried out with 24 and 32 Holstein Friesian cows, respectively, and had changeover designs each with two periods of 4 weeks, and two replicates of six and eight cows in each treatment. The respective total and bed space allowances per cow for strawyards were, 13.5 and 9.0 m 2 for high, and 6.7 and 4.5 m 2 for low space allowance. For cubicles, respective allowances per cow were 10.6 and 3.9 m 2 for high and 7.75 and 2.3 m 2 for low. Space allowance had no significant effect on milk production, liveweight change, condition score, feed intake or on total time spent feeding and lying. In strawyards, cows were dirtier ( P<0.01) at the low space allowance and milk lactose levels were lower ( P<0.01), indicating some prevalence of mastitis. In cubicles, agonistic interactions were greater ( P<0.001) at the low space allowance and the diurnal pattern of lying was disrupted, especially for high yielding cows. High milk yield cows in strawyards had lower lying times ( P<0.001) and lying synchrony ( P<0.01) than low yielding cows. Higher feed intakes of high yielding cows ( P<0.001) resulted in higher ruminating times ( P<0.001) in both experiments and higher feeding times in experiment 1 ( P<0.001) than for low yielding cows. It is concluded that for strawyards, cleanliness of the cows is a key welfare indicator, and can be controlled by management of the straw beds. Total lying time and lying synchrony are also key factors of welfare, and have particular relevance for cubicle systems where lower values were recorded. High yield dairy cows had a shorter lying time than low yield cows, and there was no evidence that high and low yield cows respond differently to changes in space allowance, indicating that their housing requirements are similar.