Two- or Four-Hour Lying Deprivation on the Behavior of Lactating Dairy Cows

Abstract 

Cows are often temporarily deprived of the opportunity to lie down while waiting for veterinary or reproductive procedures. Sixty cows were deprived of the opportunity to lie down for 0, 2, or 4h by confining them in pairs in a small indoor pen. Behavior was recorded during deprivation and for 40h afterwards. In the first 2 and 4h of the experiment, cows that were not deprived chose to lie down for 70 and 142min, respectively. When cows were discouraged from lying, they regularly stomped their legs, repositioned themselves, but never lay down. In the 4-h treatment, both stomping and repositioning increased after the first hour. Butting and weight shifting (displacing weight from one side of the body to the other) increased during deprivation, indicating restlessness. Cows deprived for 4h sniffed and rubbed their heads against the housing more than cows deprived for 0 or 2h. Time spent feeding and standing without ruminating increased with the duration of deprivation, especially during the early stages; standing ruminating also increased in the final stages. After deprivation, feeding time decreased, which compensated for the increase during deprivation. By 40h after deprivation, the lying-deprived cows had recovered approximately 40% of their lost lying time. Milk yield was not affected by lying deprivation. It is concluded that cows experience discomfort during short periods of lying deprivation, after which they recover some, but not all, of the lost lying time by rescheduling feeding and standing time.

Key words: dairy cow, behavior, lying, feeding