Dairy cow trade-off preference for 2 different lying qualities: Lying surface and lying space

摘要

Lying down is an important behavior for cows, contributingto their health and welfare. With dairy cowsbeing housed for increasingly longer periods, if not yearround,it is important to ensure that dairy cow lyingcomfort is not compromised when they are housed. Theaim of this study was to assess cow preference for 2 differentqualities of lying area that appear to be importantto cows—surface type and an open lying space—to betterunderstand how to optimize lying comfort for cowswhen housed. Twenty-four Holstein dairy cows wereused during the study, which took place in Scotlandfrom July to November 2018. The study consisted of 6experimental periods, each lasting a total of 21 d. Cowswere tested 4 at a time and individually housed in theirown test pen. Each pen had 3 lying surfaces: sand, mattress,and straw (2.4 m × 2.4 m each) with a freestall inthe middle of each, which could be removed. Cows weregiven access to one surface at a time (training period)with a freestall for 2 d, and then given a choice of all 3surfaces for 2 d. When given the choice with freestallsin position, cows spent, on average, the largest amountof their lying time on straw (46.6 ± 7.8%) followed bymattress (44.3 ± 12.4%). Freestalls were then removedand the training and choice phase was repeated on thefollowing day, with cows, on average, spending the mosttime lying on straw (64.4 ± 7.2%). Finally, a freestallwas refitted onto each cow’s most preferred surface andthe cows were given a choice between lying on theirmost preferred surface with a freestall (P1 + freestall)or on their second or third preferred surface without afreestall (P2 + open and P3 + open, respectively) for3 d. During this final trade-off stage, of the 19 cows forwhich data were available, 14 cows chose to give up theopportunity to lie down on their most preferred surfaceto have more space on P2 + open and P3 + open, 3cows chose to lie down on P1 + freestall, and 2 cowsmade no clear choice. Overall, cows spent the largestamount of their total lying time on their second mostpreferred surface as an open lying space (65.7 ± 6.9%)compared with their preferred surface with a freestall(20.5 ± 5.9%) and their third preferred surface as anopen lying space (13.8 ± 3.7%). The results indicatethat when lying down, these dairy cows value an openlying space more than the lying surface.