Cubicle Housing Research Articles

Ammonia emission and its reduction from cubicle houses by flushing

An investigation was started with the purpose of limiting the NH 3 emission from free stall dairy houses. NH 3 emission was measured in a cubicle house with slatted floors in the alleys by constantly monitoring the ventilation rate and the NH 3 concentration in the exhaust air. The emission per cow appeared to be approx. 1.0 kg NH 3 per month. The NH 3-emission, measured by a Lindvall box, from the slatted floor and the slurry storage beneath the floor was approx. 650 mg NH 3· m −2· h −1; the emission from a solid concrete floor was slightly lower. Removing the manure by means of a dung scraper hardly decreased emission. However flushing decreased the emission by approx. 70%. After installing a flushing system the NH 3 emission and the amount of flushwater were weekly measured at varying pressure, flushing interval and flushing time. The best results were obtained by flushing frequently for short periods. Compared with traditional cubicle houses the NH 3 emission could be decreased to approx. 30%; but the amount of slurry was roughly doubled by the flushwater.

Some effects of housing on the social behaviour of dairy cows

AbstractA herd of high-yielding Friesian dairy cows was observed outdoors and in a modern cubicle house. Indoors there was a much higher level of gross agonistic behaviour than at pasture (9·5 v. 1·1 per h). Furthermore, the use of continuous filming showed a high level of avoidance amongst the cows which impeded the movement of the more submissive cows. All cows spent proportionately 0·34 to 0·56 of their time indoors watching one another and 0·45 to 0·66 of their time in ‘social tension’. There was less synchrony of behaviour indoors than at pasture and despite the presence of one Calan Broadbent stall for each cow there was a high rate of displacement from the stalls involving cows of all degrees of dominance. The results are discussed in relation to housing design and husbandry practice.

Behaviour of dairy cows when fed concentrates with an automatic feeding system

On Dutch commercial farms automatic systems for feeding concentrates in a feeding station are being used increasingly. Various systems have been developed, which differ in the timing and amount of concentrates made available to the cows over a 24-h period. Three types of a fixed-time system and one variable-time system are compared with a traditional system. The fixed-time systems provided a ration of concentrates every 12 h. The starting time of these 12-h cycles varied, hence the fixed-7-time system started at 07:00 and 19:00 h; the fixed-11-time system cycles started at 11:00 and 23:00 h; and the fixed-3-time system cycles started at 15:00 and 03:00 h. The variable-time system continuously added small amounts of concentrates to the available ration per cow throughout a 24-h cycle. The traditional system provided concentrates mixed with maize silage at the feeding rack. The aim of the investigation was to describe the pattern of intake of concentrates, and the possible consequences of the various feeding systems on the cows' general activities such as eating, standing and lying down. Three experiments were carried out, each with a group of 20 lactating dairy cows kept in a cubicle house with a single concentrates feeding station. In each of the experiments, feeding systems were tested during 3-week experimental periods. Behaviour was observed during three 24-h periods in each experimental period. It was found that each of the five feeding systems tested evoked a typical pattern of visits to the feeding station. The number, the duration and the timing of rewarded and unrewarded visits differed between the various systems. The cows adapted to each feeding system, eating all their rations of concentrates as soon as they were made available. Adaptation to the feeding system affected several of the general activities, in particular the time spent at the feeding rack and the time spent lying in the cubicles. With the fixed-11-time system, new feeding cycles started at times when many cows were lying down. Under these conditions the lowranking cows sometimes had to wait a long time before they could enter the station, which resulted in a reduced lying time for them.

Social dominance in dairy cattle and the influences of housing and management

Although there is much information available on social dominance in dairy cattle the concept is still regularly discussed. The results of four experiments with dairy cows, together with the relevant literature are used to discuss the influence of housing and management on social dominance. In total, seven groups of dairy cows kept in cubicle houses were studied. Stable dominance relationships appeared to exist, but in 41.1% of all pairs both members displaced each other. It is argued that the housing system (feeding rack and cubicles) and the management (crowding) greatly influence the occurrence of successful displacements by a subordinate cow (‘contradictory displacements’) and of other ‘aberrant’ interactions. The role of social dominance in the daily life of the dairy cow is discussed. The chances of a cow obtaining resources (e.g. food or a lying place) can only be predicted to a limited degree from her dominance value. Various ‘disturbing factors’ (e.g. aberrant interactions, triangular relationships, individual variation in frequency and ‘direction’ of interactions) affect such a prediction. These disturbing factors are the result of the housing and the management at the dairy farm. It is concluded that the described dominance value is the best available because possible alternatives are more difficult to obtain and no more useful.

The effect of environment and stage of the oestrous cycle on the behaviour of dairy cows

In a series of four experiments, the changes over the perioestrous period in oestrus, and other behaviours in pasture, cubicle, and straw yard environments were examined. In Experiment 1, which was conducted in a cubicle environment, only standing-to-be-mounted behaviour was confined to the day of oestrus. Changes in time spent lying or standing in the cubicle or in the feeding passage were not significantly affected by oestrus, but standing in the cubicle passage was increased on the day of oestrus. In Experiment 2 there was no significant difference in the oestrous behaviour of cows at pasture day and night, or cows at pasture during the day and in a cubicle house at night. In both treatments lying time was reduced on the day of oestrus, but there was no compensatory increase on the day after oestrus. In Experiment 3 cows in a straw yard tended to show an increased incidence of most oestrus-related behaviours on the day of oestrus compared with cows in a cubicle house. Also in contrast to cows in the cubicle house, cows in the straw yard reduced lying time and increased standing time on the day of oestrus, and compensated for these changes by increasing lying time and reducing standing time on the day after oestrus. Feeding time was increased for these cows on the day before oestrus and reduced on the day of oestrus and the day after oestrus. In Experiment 4 the behaviour of paired cows that were either in oestrus or not in oestrus was observed in a small pen. Oestrous cows displayed standing-to-be-mounted behaviour with both oestrous and non-oestrous cows. Mounting activity by an oestrous cow on a non-oestrous cow was not successful. Over the series of experiments it was found that sniffing and licking the anogenital area and chin-resting activities were less predictive of oestrus than mounting, as they were sometimes performed in the non-oestrous state. Aggression tended to be confined to oestrous cows in the grazing or housed environment but in the confined pen was displayed by non-oestrous cows.

The significance of cubicles for the behaviour of dairy cows

For dairy cows, a large variation is observed in daily time spent lying down. Individual variations and differences connected with housing or management are known to affect the actual time spent lying. A series of experiments with dairy cows kept in cubicle houses was carried out. We investi-gated the consequences of some details of the cubicle house and of overcrowding on the time spent standing and lying in the cubicles. The aim of the experiments was to obtain information about the significance of cubicles for resting and for hiding. Four experiments were carried out with a total of seven different groups of dairy cows. In the first experiment, the cows were kept in a so-called old cubicle house, which differed in various ways from a so-called new cubicle house in which the other three experiments were performed. In each experiment, a normal situation — with as many feeding and lying places as animals in the group — was compared with an overcrowded situation in which both the number of feeding and lying places was reduced. In the four experiments, overcrowding levels of 50, 55, 25 and 33.3% were tested. To measure the time spent eating, standing and lying, detailed observations were carried out for 24-h periods. Under normal conditions, the cows spent ∼13 h lying and 2.5 h standing per 24 h. In the old cubicle house, under normal conditions, the time spent in the cubicles was lower than in the new cubicle house. This is probably due to two factors: (1) the cubicles were smaller and less comfortable; (2) in the old cubicle house the cows could hide from confrontations with group mates at the feeding rack with its separations between the feeding places as well as in the cubicles. Overcrowding resulted in a reduction in time spent lying in the cubicles and also in a reduced time spent standing in the cubicles in the new cubicle house. It is concluded that under over-crowded conditions, lying is more important than standing in the cubicles. Based on these experiments and on the available literature, it is concluded that lying is important for the cows. This means that cubicles are important for the cows; however the minimum time that the cows need to lie or stand in a cubicle is not yet known. Various factors are suggested which may affect how long the cows need to lie.

Spacing of dairy cows at a food trough

Enforced proximity of cows while feeding has implications both for production and welfare. To measure the preferred separation of dairy cows during feeding, a group of lactating Friesian-Holstein cows was observed in a cubicle house. A complete diet was offered ad libitum in a food trough. The trough was reached through a feed rail which was divided by vertical bars into 44 feeding positions, each 0.65 m wide. Records were made every 10 min from 11:00 to 16:00 h of which cows were feeding and of their positions. Agonistic interactions were recorded and cows were classified as low, medium and high ranking. When from 4 to 14 cows were feeding, positions chosen were non-random. Cows tended to clump together, but within each clump positions immediately adjacent to another cow were often avoided. When <4 or >14 cows were at the trough, their distribution was not significantly different from random. Choice of position was affected by dominance relationships. Neighbours similar in rank were a mean of 3.0 positions apart, dissimilar neighbours (low/medium or medium/high rank) were further apart (3.8 positions) and most dissimilar neighbours (low/high rank) had the greatest separation (4.4 positions).

The effect of cubicle housing, grazing and increasing age on the locomotion scores of dairy cows

In order to examine the locomotion characteristics of dairy cows in Wales and South West England, nine herds with a range of calving patterns, where locomotion scored using a scale from one (good) to five (recumbent) including half scores. Each herd was examined three times; at the end of the 1988 grazing season, late in the following winter housing period and finally towards the end of the 1989 grazing season. A total of 1,166 cows were seen on at least one occasion. The change in score arising from housing and the subsequent return to grazing was examined for the 464 cows which had been seen on every occasion.

The effects of cubicle or strawyard housing and a post-partum injection of prostaglandin on the production and reproductive performance of dairy cows

The objective of the experiment was to compare the production and reproductive performance of dairy cows in two environments known to produce large differences in cow behaviour - the cubicle house and straw yard. In addition an injection of prostaglandin analogue was investigated in both environments as it has been previously reported that a post-partum injection.of PGF2 α can improve poor reproductive performance (Knight, 1985).Forty multiparous spring-calving cows were allocated for 12 weeks prepartum and 12 weeks postpartum t0o either a covered strawyard (S) stocked at 0.12 cows/m2 or a cubicle house (C) stocked at 0.17 cows/ m2. One half of each group received an injection PGF2 (P) 21 days post-partum, the other half receiving no injection (N). All cows were offered a complete diet ad libitum (ME 11.9 MJ/kg DM, CP 164g/kg) and results for the animal production and reproduction are presented for the postpartum period, and results for hoof condition presented for the entire winter.

Behaviour and welfare of cows in a cubicle house

Behaviour and welfare of cows in a cubicle house

The relationship between social dominance and the amount and type of aggressive interactions of dairy cows kept in a cubicle house

The relationship between social dominance and the amount and type of aggressive interactions of dairy cows kept in a cubicle house

The reaction of cows to a short-term deprivation of lying

In a herd of 20 cows in a cubicle house, lying behaviour was prevented for 3 h each morning by enclosing the animals on the slatted floor of the feeding area. Lying time of cows was recorded during the 10 h following deprivation. The 3 h of lying deprivation resulted in a recovery rate of almost 50% within the observation period. When cows were also deprived of food during the lying-deprivation period, the recovery rate of lying did not alter. However, when feeding alone was prevented, the increased feeding tendency did decrease lying time in the subsequent hour. It is concluded that cows aim to achieve a rather fixed amount of lying, and that their well-being must seriously be impaired when lying time is restricted for several hours.

Some observations on the behaviour of dairy cattle using cow-activated out-of-parlour concentrate dispensers

SummaryHoused dairy heifers (62 cows) were fed concentrates exclusively through variable-time, out-of-parlour dispensers. They were observed to visit the dispensers on average 20·4 times/d but significantly less frequently (13·9 times/d) shortly after calving. The dispensers were occupied for 25·8% of the night (22.00–06.00 h) compared with 30·4% of the day (06.00–22.00 h). This difference was small but significant, whereas the differences between the proportion of night and day spent standing (32·5 v. 66·2%) or eating silage (4·8 v. 24·7%) were noticeably greater. In a herd of ∼ 80 cows in which the daily average number of visits to the dispenser was 20·5/cow there was a significant decrease in the number of visits/d (y) with increasing time after calving (x) where y = 23·4–0·030x (r = 0·88). Some cows repeatedly visited the dispensers more frequently than others (range 13·2–34·9±5·3 visits/d, giving a repeatability of 0·58). Cows in a grazing herd (∼ 60) visited the dispensers on average 14·6 times/d during an average 3·6 visits to a cubicle house to which they had continuous access. The number of visits to the dispensers (y) again decreased with increasing time after calving (x) where y = 22·7–0·072x (r = 0·45). The average time spent in the cubicle house (z) also decreased as the days after calving (x) increased (z = 8·4 – 0073x+0·000203x2, r =–0·66). All cows, however, stayed in the cubicle house during periods of heavy rainfall.

Crowding phenomena in dairy cows as related to available idling space in a cubicle housing system

The effects of crowding by dairy cattle in the idling area of a loose housing system were studied. The behaviour of 15 cows in a cubicle stable was recorded for periods of 3 weeks with either a small or large idling area available. The highest frequency of aggressive interactions occurred in the small idling area, although the incidence of aggression decreased over time. Locomotion was seen most in the large idling area. Nevertheless, the animals remained for most of the time just behind the cubicles, in spite of the extra space available. During periods of high occupancy of the idling area, low-ranking animals tended to remain in the cubicles when either a small or a large idling area was available. In the small idling area, a high proportion of mounting was directed to cows in the cubicles, and most mountings and attempted mountings were initiated by cows in oestrus. When more idling space was available, non-oestrous cows initiated the sexual interactions almost as often as oestrous cows. The size of the idling area did not effect feeding, ruminating or lying time, or frequency of defaecation. However, with a small idling area, frequency of urination was initially increased, particularly amongst the low-ranking cows.