Tackling the future challenges of Organic Animal Husbandry - vTI

! Agriculture and Forestry Research, Special Issue No 362 (Braunschweig, 2012) ISSN 0376-0723
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Abstract
188
How much space do horned dairy cows need
in the waiting area?
KATHARINA A. ZIPP 1 , SARAH BRANDT 1 , NORA IRRGANG 1 , UTE KNIERIM 1
1 Farm Animal Behaviour and Husbandry Section, University of Kassel, Germany, www.unikassel.de/agrar/fnt,
Email: zipp@uni-kassel.de
The influence of three difference space allowances in the waiting area of the milking parlour (4.0,
2.5, 1.7 m²/cow) on the number of physical agonistic interactions (‘attacks’) per minute in this
place, number of flinches, steps and kicks (FSK) per minute in the parlour and heart rate (HR) in
both areas was investigated in 12 lower and 12 higher ranking focal cows in a research herd of 85-
87 horned German Black Pied cattle. Social position had no influence on HR and behaviour. HR in
the waiting area and parlour and FSK increased with decreasing space allowance. HR was significantly
higher in V1.7 than in the other two pen sizes, FSK in V1.7 compared to V4.0. ‘Attacks’ occurred
fewest in V2.5 with a significant difference compared to V1.7. Thus, in terms of animal welfare
and milker’s working comfort a space allowance of 1.7 m²/horned cow in the waiting area is
not advisable. Major benefits of V4.0 were not detected under the given conditions.
Key words: agonistic behaviour, heart rate, animal welfare, milking parlour
Introduction
A potential hot spot of agonistic behaviour in dairy cows is the waiting area before the milking parlour
(Schneider et al. 2009). Menke et al. (1999) found a negative correlation between general space
availability per cow and agonistic behaviour and skin lesions caused by horn butts. Crowding the
cows so that they can hardly move, was found to decrease agonistic behaviour, but to increase heart
rate (HR) up to 25% (Czako 1978), indicating stress. Social rank may modify the stress reaction to
space restriction (Aschwanden et al. 2008). Finally, stress may influence behaviour and HR of the
cows in the parlour (Rushen et al. 2001), so that space allowance in the waiting area may affect
these, too.
The aim of this study was to assess the risk of injury and stress level of horned higher and lower
ranking cows in the waiting area and parlour at three different space allowances by measuring HR
as well as the number of agonistic interactions before and agitation behaviour during milking.
Animals, material and methodology
In September 2009 the experiment was conducted on the research farm of the University of Kassel
where at this time 85-87 lactating cows of the breed German Black Pied were housed in a loose
housing barn with 48 deep bed cubicles and a deep litter area of 312.5 m². Out of the lactating,
horned animals without lameness or other impairments of health 12 higher and 12 lower ranking
focal cows were chosen via counting the injuries and hairless areas caused by horn butts and observation
of agonistic behaviour (2x 2h) at the feeding rack (rank index: Schrader 2002). The data of
one higher and one lower ranking cow were eliminated from analysis because they became lame or
came in heat during the experiment. Due to missing values the number of analysed animals decreased
further for some parameters (n see Table 1).
In three consecutive weeks the cows were subjected to three space allowances, beginning with the
largest and then decreasing space: 4.0, 2.5 and 1.7 m²/cow (V4.0, V2.5, V1.7). Before the experiment,
the size of the waiting area was about 2.3 m²/cow. In the course of milking the space allowance
in the waiting area increased because cows went into the parlour and size of the waiting area
was not adjusted. At each space allowance, the cows had at least two days to adjust following four