Making tiestalls more comfortable: Ⅰ. Adjusting tie-rail height and forward position to improve dairy cows’ ability to rise and lie down

摘要

The overall goal of the study was to develop newrecommendations for tie-rail placement combining bothvertical and horizontal positions to improve dairy cowwelfare. Four treatments were tested: 2 new tie-rail positionsthat followed the natural neckline of cows whenfeeding and rising [neckline 1 (NL1), neckline 2 (NL2)],current recommendation (CR), and the average tie-railposition currently found on Quebec farms (currentaverage on farm; CF). All other stall dimensions followedCR based on average cow size. Forty-eight cowsblocked by parity and stage of lactation were randomlyallocated to a treatment for 10 wk. Live scoring wasperformed weekly to evaluate injury, cow and stallcleanliness, and bedding quantity. Daily lying time, lyingbout frequency, and lying bout duration were continuouslyrecorded using leg-mounted accelerometers.Cows were recorded 1 d/wk by overhead cameras toevaluate lying down and rising events. Tie-rail placementdid not affect cow and stall cleanliness, beddingquantity, and lying time. All tie-rail placements testedresulted in neck injuries with the position of neck injuriesshifting based on the change in tie-rail placement:CR increased in proximal neck injuries (mean± standard deviation, difference in injury score frombaseline: +0.89 ± 0.153) compared with NL2 (+0.06 ±0.153), but decreased in medial neck injuries (−0.11 ±0.166) compared with NL2 (+0.78 ± 0.166) and NL1(+0.53 ± 0.166). All treatments showed a decrease overtime in average lying intention time (mean, differencebetween overall short- and long-term: −5.8 s/event),lying-down time (−1.1 s/event), contact with stallduring lying (−32.5%), slipping during lying (−9.1%),backward movement on knees during rising (−10.9%),contact with tie-rail during rising (−14.3%), and overallabnormal rising (−15.6%) over time. Although lyingand rising ability improved over time, abnormal lyingand rising behaviors were still highly prevalent in thelong term. Overall, our results show that dairy cows arelimited in their ability to move within their environmentwithout coming in contact with the stall confines(tie-rail and divider bars), warranting further researchto determine alternatives to metal tie-rail bars, suchas a flexible bar or chain, or provide fewer obstaclesthrough the elimination of some stall hardware.