Should Dairy Cattle Be Trained to a Virtual Fence System as Individuals or in Groups?

摘要

A virtual fence (VF) system is being evaluated for commercial implementation in the Australian livestock industries. For this to work in dairy systems, cows will require training to learn the association between paired stimuli for livestock containment. We aimed to understand if cow learning and response to VF stimuli would differ when trained as individuals or in groups in a controlled experimental environment. Twenty-three dairy cows were trained to a VF as individuals or in groups of 5–6, and then moved to the alternate context to test the retention of learning. Cows trained in groups were more likely to interact with the VF when tested as individuals, indicating they might rely on the response of their conspecifics rather than directly receiving stimuli themselves. It is important that all individuals learn the association between stimuli to ensure they remain within a boundary, and to minimise potential welfare implications on animals that do not learn. However, training individual cattle is impractical, therefore, further work should evaluate effective group training protocols that provide the time and space for all individuals to learn the VF.