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Cow Behaviour to Judge
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| Author: | Neil Anderson - Veterinary Science/OMAFRA |
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| Creation Date: | July 2003 |
| Last Reviewed: | 1 July 2004 |
Choices in stabling and management affect the behaviour, health, longevity and performance of cows and profit of a dairy farm. Fear or frustration with her workplace predisposes a cow to unwanted or abnormal behaviour and risk of disease. Cow behaviour and disease are gauges of cow comfort. Diseases related to comfort include lameness, hock and neck injuries, mastitis, milk fever, ketosis and displaced stomachs. Behaviours while resting, eating, walking or occupying stalls provide additional information about comfort. Positive interactions between a cow, her workplace and her caregivers lead to good cow welfare, happy employees and a productive herd.
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In comfortable stalls, cows lie for 60% of the day and seldom perch or stand idly. The ideal stall has open forward space for normal rising and lying motions. It has no hazards that cause injury, pain or frustration. In addition, it provides space for all normal resting positions and allows cows to stand and lie straight. Cow and stall cleanliness are common in comfortable stalls. Cows should adapt easily, have ready access to feed, water and shade, and avoid injury in well-designed dairy housing. This document describes cow behaviour to look for when judging cow comfort in free-stall and tie-stall barns. The behaviours provide practical tests (indicators) of a housing system.
Figure 1. Four normal resting positions include long, short, wide and narrow. The fifth is lateral recumbency. Stall characteristics affect total lying time, the time spent resting in one position and resting positions.
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Idle standing describes pointless positioning with all four feet in the free stall. It includes failed attempts at lying.
Stereotypic behaviours also may be seen with idle standing. These include pushing of the nose firmly against the stabling or grasping onto pipes.
Some cows stand in a free stall and swing their heads repeatedly
left and right, as if checking traffic before crossing a busy street.
This activity has been described as "the hesitation waltz."
In narrow tie stalls with dividers between every second cow, there
may be inadequate space for both cows to lie at the same time. In
these barns, one cow must stand while the other lies.
Figure 2. Dairy cows standing idly in their free stalls should be viewed as "pointers," pointing towards hazards in their workplace. The stalls closest to the bunk fill first and the cows are lying. The cows in the facing row choose to stand idly for considerable time in these 15-foot head-to-head free stalls. The facing cows and several stall features are obstructions to their comfort.
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Perching describes cows standing with their front feet in the stall and rear feet in the alley. The behaviour may also describe cows lying with part of their body in the stall and part in the alley. Claw horn diseases of the rear feet are more common in barns with features that encourage cows to perch.
In lying cows, perching contributes to contamination of udders, teats, legs and tails, and risks of mastitis. Bouts of perching may last for several minutes or greater than one hour.
Perching often accompanies efforts to control stall cleanliness through
placement of neck rails to the rear of the stall, deterrents at the
front of the stall, short beds or use of an uncomfortable resting
surface. One research study showed that perching decreased as the
width of free stalls increased from 44 to 52 inches.
In some tie-stall barns, cows perch with their front feet on the bed
and their rear feet in the gutter. In these barns, the tethering system
and a lack of headspace may contribute to the behaviour.
Figure 3. Perching describes cows standing with front feet in the stall and hind feet in the alley. It also could describe cows lying partially in the alley and the stall. Perching cows are sentinels pointing to perils in their stalls.
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Diagonal standing or lying describes the corner-to-corner use of a stall. This behaviour provides space for placing four feet in a stall, lunging, avoiding a cow in a facing stall or lying with body parts on the bed. Cows stand or lie diagonally in a stall because of a lack of space for standing or lying straight or lunging straight. They use the hypotenuse of an imaginary right-angled triangle in the stall to alert us to obstructions in their stalls.
Figure 4. Cows standing or lying diagonally (corner-to-corner) in a free stall are avoiding obstructions to normal activities. In this barn with open-front, 16-foot curb-to-curb free stalls, cows lunged diagonally 81% of the time when the facing stall was occupied and 34% of the time when the facing stall was empty.
In some tie stalls, cows stand or lie diagonally because of narrow openings at the front, short beds and high manger curbs, location of the tie rail or position of the electric cow trainer.
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Straight standing or lying describes cows positioned parallel to the dividing loops in a stall. Forward open space is the unobstructed space at the front of a stall. It allows cows to stand, go down, lie and rise straight.
Straightness in the free stall, rapid entry and lying, infrequent standing and rare perching behaviour characterize stalls with adequate frontward open space. Forward open space is the reason for 18-foot head-to-head free stalls or 10-foot stalls facing a wall.
Figure 5. Forward open space facilitates straight standing and lying in stalls. The forward open space in these 18-foot stalls also permits front lunging, heat dispersion through cow separation and avoidance of dominant/subordinate behaviour.
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Calves and heifers learn the behaviour when raised in ill-fitting
free stalls. They often carry the behaviour into the milking barn.
Some will persist with it even
when stalls are adequate for normal behaviour. Mature cows adopt the
behaviour to avoid frustrating or painful free-stall features.
Some believe cows lie backwards because the free stalls are too wide.
This may be true with free stalls wider than 54 inches - an extremely
rare free stall. However, determined cows will lie backwards in stalls
less than 48 inches wide. Lying backwards may be the most obvious
of avoidance behaviours.
Figure 6. Cows lying backwards are turning away from stall features that they dislike and pointing to open space needed for freedom of normal motions.
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Restlessness describes cows fidgeting while lying or moving frequently from the narrow (upright) to the wide resting position.
When restless, the bottom rear leg moves over the bed, chafing the outside of the hock. In addition, the top leg falls off the bed into the alley, chafing the inside of the hock.
High brisket boards in free stalls and high manger curbs in tie stalls
obstruct forward extension of the front legs and contribute to restlessness.
Other obstructions, injuries or lameness make rising difficult or
painful, so cows lie for long bouts without rising or changing sides
for lying.
Figure 7. Restless cows change positions frequently, kick the bedding off the stalls and develop injuries to legs from repetitive trauma. Their activity and injuries point to discomfort or obstructions to normal lying positions.
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Alternate occupancy describes cows lying in every other free stall with an empty facing stall.
It provides the opportunity for social space, unobstructed lunging and avoidance of a dominant cow in a facing stall.
Alternate occupancy is obvious in underpopulated pens where cows
have a choice of an empty or occupied facing stall. Since cattle have
a need for social space, their choice of adjacent companions depends
upon age, temperament or difference in rank in the herd.
Figure 8. Alternate occupancy with cows lying in every other stall is evident in these 15-foot head-to-head free stalls. The behaviour primarily indicates short stalls and inadequate social space rather than a dislike for facing another cow.
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Figure 9a. Rising motions include a forward lunge. The arrows show the distance the nose travels forward of the resting position. The motions also include a downward and upward bobbing of the head.
Any object in the range of normal motion obstructs rising and lying. Keen observation and listening help point to obstructions - e.g., chin cuffers, skull smackers, withers whackers, foot bangers and knee knockers.
Cows cope by altering the normal bob, lunge and pendulum
motions of the head and smooth motions become shuffles of the front
and hindquarters. When coping with obstructions, the cow's head moves
in an upward ski-jump type arc rather than a normal bob.
Figure 9b. The rising motion also includes a stride forward of about 18 inches by one front foot. The striding foot usually clears a 4-inch obstacle and this sets the maximum height for a brisket locator.
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Caudal licking describes cows using their tongue to groom the fold between their udder and leg. The behaviour should be of interest because it is an indicator of floor slipperiness. The behaviour also may be beneficial to prevent scalding between the leg and udder.
To do so, they stand on their two front legs and one hind leg, as
shown in Figures 10a and 10b. Caudal licking behaviour is important
for hygiene between the leg and udder.
Figure 10a. Dr. Barbara Benz, Germany, observed more frequent caudal licking behaviour on rubber covered floors because cows did not slip while standing on three legs. She noted that a lack of this behaviour is a reliable indicator of floor slipperiness.
In traditional tie-stall barns and older stanchion barns, the tethering system may prevent caudal licking. An 18-21-inch chain in a single tie-rail system does not permit caudal licking for the majority of cows. A double-chain system ("Comfort Stalls" in Ontario) also does not allow for the behaviour.
Figure 10b. Newer tie stalls allow cows to groom between their
leg and udder. In this barn, the tie rail is 48 inches above the bed
and the tie chain extends to the top of the manger curb. This 60-inch-wide
stall is used for cows prior to and after calving. It provides space
for several normal resting positions and grooming behaviour.
Kneeling Cow Syndrome (KCS) describes dairy cows kneeling on their fore knees while standing upright on their hind legs. Caregivers dislike KCS because these cows defecate within the stall bed. Contaminated beds lead to dirty teats and udders, increased udder preparation time, risks of mastitis and risks to milk quality.
Figure 11. Cows adopt the kneeling posture to cope with challenges in their workplace. In this tie-stall barn, the manger surface and bed are at the same level, the tie rail is 39 inches above the bed and feed is not readily available.
In tie stalls, cows kneel to avoid malpositioned electric trainers
- trainers that are too close to their top line or forward of, and
lower than, the withers. They also kneel to reach feed when the manger
is at, or below, their foot height. In addition, cows kneel to get
to feed beyond their reach.
Some cows spread their feet apart laterally to lower shoulder and head height as a way to make feed more accessible. This stance stresses the inside claw of the front foot and may contribute to sole ulcers. Cows with laminitis may kneel while eating.
In tie and free stalls, cows may kneel for extended times in response to obstructions to normal rising or lying. The obstructions are typically in their head bob and lunge space but also may include a malpositioned neck rail in free stalls.
Dog sitting behaviour describes cows that sit like dogs on their hindquarters with their front legs extended. The behaviour also may be described as rising like a horse, with the front end before the hindquarters.
The behaviour should alert us to several stall features that create
discomfort for the cow. It also may indicate an injury to a front
leg. Cows with injuries to a knee often rest with the leg in extension
because swelling limits their ability to fold it. Of necessity, those
cows also choose to extend both forelimbs and rise like a horse.
However, cows without injured forelegs, also choose to sit like dogs and rise like horses. In tie-stall barns with comfort stalls, some cows cannot cope with the lack of lunge space and short chains that restrict forward lunging. They cope by rising like horses and often sit like dogs for several minutes. In free-stall barns with obstructions to normal rising and lying behaviour, one or several cows may exhibit dog-sitting behaviour. In Figure 12, note the 12-inch brisket board and the neck rail 46 inches above the bed. These may be obstructions that caused her pain and fear and subsequently altered her normal rising behaviour.
Figure 12. The cow in the adjacent photo is sitting like a dog and she rose like a horse, with her front quarters first. The dog-sitting behaviour may persist for several minutes before a cow rises. The behaviour may accompany several failed attempts to rise and some bellowing.
Dog-sitting behaviour should not be confused with frog posture that describes full or partial extension of both hind legs forward along the sides of the recumbent body. In cattle, frog posture is an indicator of hip dislocation, rupture of the adductor muscles or paralysis of the obturator nerve.
Stereotypy describes excessive repetition of apparently purposeless behaviour. Stereotyped behaviour is abnormal and one form of behavioural response to a stressful or difficult condition.
The nose-pressing behaviour shown in Figure 13 may be unnoticed or viewed as normal for certain cows in a herd. However, it may be indicative of shortcomings in the housing that stress cattle.
Figure 13. The black cow in Figure 13 showed repetitive bouts of pressing her nose into the steel lower pipe of the loop or the transverse pipe for mounting the loop. Her bouts of nose-pressing behaviour varied in duration from a few seconds to several minutes and with several episodes of about 30 minutes throughout the day.
The stressful condition causing the stereotypy may be difficult to identify or it may involve several factors. By chance, video recordings in a tie-stall barn captured the nose-pressing stereotypy of a mature Holstein cow. The stall had a wide opening, a single tie-rail (40 inches above the bed) and an 18-inch tie chain to a leather neck strap. The bed length was 66 inches from manger curb to gutter curb. The stall was 46 inches wide and it had two vertical support posts located 12 inches forward of the gutter curb. The cow's lying time was about 8 hours in a 24-hour period. When going down to rest, her hips contacted the support posts. While standing idly (not eating, ruminating or milking), she pressed her nose repeatedly into the tie-rail support post and she danced constantly from foot-to-foot. She had no signs of foot disease. A combination of stall features could have led to her nose-pressing behaviour.
Visitors to barns often assess cow behaviour and stall comfort during their cameo appearance. The impression may or may not be correct.
Drs. Ken Nordlund and Nigel Cook at the University of Wisconsin describe methods to calculate a stall usage index. Their research shows that lameness increases with less usage of the free stall. Dr. Overton in California advises the time to get the most accurate assessment of stall usage is one hour before the morning feeding or milking.
Although more time consuming, time-lapse video recordings show what may not be obvious during a cameo appearance.
Figure 14. The reactions of cows to their stalls can be described by bouts of resting, standing and perching times. Using the median as the measure of central tendency, bar graphs in Figure 14 compare original free stalls to new stalls in a case study herd. Bouts of resting increased about 24 minutes, standing time decreased 2.5 minutes and perching decreased 4 minutes in the new stalls with obstructions removed.
Figure 15. The histogram shows the frequency distribution of bouts of perching for cows in the BG barn shown in Figure 5. The y-axis shows the frequency of the perching events and the x-axis shows the duration of the perching bout in minutes. There were 13 bouts of perching for the 8 stalls. Perching is a rare event and the duration is short in this barn with 18-foot head-to-head stalls that have a 48-inch width.
Figure 16. The histogram shows the frequency distribution of perching
bouts in the FM barn shown in Figure 17. There were 52 bouts of perching
for 10 stalls in a 24-hour period. Fully 25% of the cows perched for
greater than 12 minutes.
Figure 17. The 6-row FM barn was the source of data for Figure
16. The 15-foot head-to-head stalls are 48-inches wide, have a 10-inch-high
brisket board and neck rail located 46 inches above the mattress and
66 inches forward of the curb. Lameness is a common complaint in this
herd.
A healthy cow walking on pasture places the rear foot into the position vacated by the front foot on the same side. On slippery floors or in dark conditions that alter a cow's confidence, she places her rear foot outside the track of the front foot, alters stride and step length and walking speed. This altered walking behaviour provides greater stability but places greater stress on the outside claw. Choices of flooring and lighting influence walking behaviour, foot health and cow movement. Foot placement, length of stride and step and walking speed are a few items of locomotion pointing to walking behaviour.
Figure 18a. Claw prints of a cow show several components of walking - including stride, step, step angle, overlap and abduction.
Observation of walking patterns provides an opportunity to assess floors for traction and flatness of surface for the claw to rest upon.
In addition, "birdbaths" in concrete floors are health
risks that pool wastes, contaminate feet and tails and allow splashing
onto beds, teats or legs.
Figure 18b. A cow's foot placement and walking speed change with confidence in the flooring or lighting in a barn. A mixture of lime and water brushed onto the floor shows the cow's tracks and her altered locomotion to gain stability on the slippery concrete flooring.
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Obstructions that restrict normal rising and lying or stall features that cause pain, fear or frustration can result in unwanted or abnormal behaviour. Through their behaviour, cows point to barn features that cause them discomfort - walls, boards, pipes, bedding, ropes or nylon straps in the forward space needed for lunging and bobbing the head. Other discomfort items include narrow stalls, short beds, narrow openings in loops for side-lunging stalls, neck rails that are too low or too close to the rear of the stall, high brisket boards, high curbs and lack of suitable bedding.
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Please audit the cows in your care for abnormal behaviour, injuries or disease. Identify the causes and give your cows a safe and healthy workplace. An easy yoke and a light burden are part of our responsibility to the cows.
The yokes He made were true,
because the man who dreamed was too
a craftsman. The burdens that the oxen drew
were light.
At night
He lay upon his bed and knew
no beast of his stood chafing in a stall
made restless by a needless gall. ANON
1. Free
Stall Dimensions
2. Tie Stall
Dimensions
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