Do familiar group mates facilitate integration into the milking group after calving?

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00027014%3A_____%2F20%3AN0000097" target="_blank" >RIV/00027014:_____/20:N0000097 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://vuzv.cz/_privat/20094.pdf" target="_blank" >https://vuzv.cz/_privat/20094.pdf</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2020.105033" target="_blank" >10.1016/j.applanim.2020.105033</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Do familiar group mates facilitate integration into the milking group after calving?

Original language description

As dairy cows’ needs and demands change over the different phases of their reproductive cycle, regrouping is common practice in dairy farming to facilitate management and handling. However, social instability associated with regrouping is known to have negative effects on the cows, including disturbances in their lying behaviour. In this study, we examined the effect of familiar group mates on lying time and lying synchrony in a dynamic group of approximately 50 early lactating dairy cows during 23 regrouping events. We focussed on 13 primiparous and 33 multiparous post partum cows during 24 hours after their introduction to the group as compared to a matched control sample of resident cows. We hypothesised that freshly introduced cows would lie shorter and behave less synchronously with the group as compared to resident cows. Further, we hypothesised that lying duration and lying synchrony will increase with the number of familiar animals present and that these effects may depend on whether the familiarity was acquired early in life or only recently. As predicted, primiparous fresh cows lied less and behaved less synchronous at the dyadic level than their matched residents. However, no such effect was present in multiparous cows. The presence of recently familiar animals had no influence on either primiparous or multiparous cows’ behaviour. In contrast, early familiar animals affected the cows’ behaviour in several aspects, yet differently in primiparas and multiparas. In fresh primiparas, an increasing number of early familiar animals present had a negative effect on lying duration. Among both fresh and resident primiparas, early familiar dyads were more synchronized than other pairs of animals. In multiparous cows, a higher number of early familiar cows present led to more synchronous behaviour with the group. We conclude that primiparous and multiparous cows are differently affected when introduced to a lactating group after calving. Duration and synchronization of lying behaviour indicated that primiparas are strongly challenged by their entrance to the group while multiparas cope well with it. In both primiparas and multiparas, lying behaviour was affected, albeit differently, by the presence of early familiar individuals, but not by recently familiar animals. The relations between familiarity, group dynamics, behavioural synchrony and lying behaviour are complex and need deeper investigation.

Czech name

—

Czech description

—

Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

10614 - Behavioral sciences biology

Project

—

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2020

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Applied Animal Behaviour Science

ISSN

0168-1591

e-ISSN

—

Volume of the periodical

229

Issue of the periodical within the volume

August

Country of publishing house

NL - THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS

Number of pages

8

Pages from-to

105033

UT code for WoS article

000557873400006

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85086132868