Publikationsdatenbank

Short-term effects of regrouping on behavior of prepartum dairy cows (2011)

Art

Zeitschriftenartikel / wissenschaftlicher Beitrag

Autoren

Schirmann, K.

Chapinal, N.

Weary, D. M.

Heuwieser, W.

von Keyserlingk, M. A. G.

Quelle

Journal of dairy science : JDS

Bandzählung: 94

Heftzählung: 5

Seiten: 2312 – 2319

ISSN: 0022-0302

Sprache

Englisch

Verweise

URL (Volltext): http://edocs.fu-berlin.de/docs/receive/FUDOCS_document_000000020272

DOI: 10.3168/jds.2010-3639

Pubmed: 21524520

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Abstract / Zusammenfassung

The objectives were to determine the effect of regrouping during the dry period on feeding, social, rumination, and lying behavior for cows that were moved to a new pen and cows that remained in their home pen but had new cows introduced. Forty-eight prepartum Holstein dairy cows were housed in groups of 6 and regrouped in groups of 3 (16 triads) with 1 triad moving to another pen and 1 triad staying in the same pen; the triad was considered the experimental unit. For 7 d before and 8 d after regrouping, cows were continuously monitored for feeding, rumination, and lying behavior by means of an electronic feeding system, a rumination logger on each cow's neck, and a data logger attached to 1 of the hind legs, respectively. Video recording was used to monitor displacements at the feeder for 3h following the afternoon fresh feed delivery before regrouping and for the 2 subsequent afternoon feed deliveries after regrouping. Cows that were moved to a new pen after regrouping decreased DMI by approximately 9% on the day of regrouping compared with baseline values, but cows that remained in their home pen showed no significant decrease in intake after regrouping. Feeding rate decreased in both treatments by 10% after regrouping. Rumination times also decreased by approximately 9% in both treatments, reaching the lowest values on the day of regrouping for cows that stayed in the home pen and on the day after regrouping for the moved cows. Cows that were moved to a new pen displaced other cows at the feeder twice as frequently after regrouping, but no such effect of regrouping on cows that stayed in the home pen was observed. These results indicate that regrouping can affect behavior of prepartum dairy cows, especially those cows that are moved to a new pen.