The lying and standing activity indices of dairy cows in free-stall housing

Behavioural activity is used as an indication of animal comfort, and lying and standing behaviours are often used as a sign of well-being in cattle and to evaluate the quality of stalls. The aim of this study was to compare the values of different behavioural indices at different scan-sampling frequencies and to evaluate the different methods of data aggregation that are used to obtain daily behavioural indices. The lying, standing, feeding and drinking behaviours of 69 cows in a free-stall barn were recorded over 7 days using continuous video recording. The temperature humidity index (THI) was recorded at 15-min intervals during the entire experimental period. Behavioural indices were calculated based on scan sampling intervals of 10, 20, 30, 60 and 120-min, as well as for different time periods during the day. The results highlighted how lying, standing and feeding behaviours can be properly interpreted by analysing images taken on an hourly basis (highly correlated with 10, 20 and 30-min scan samples; r>0.85, P<0.01) and restricting the period of analysis between the two daily milkings (07:00-14:00) and the evening hours (19:00-22:00) after the second milking (highly correlated with daily behaviour; r>0.898, P<0.01). Night hours might not be considered in the calculation of daily behaviour because they did not improve the quality of the indices obtained. The analysis of the indices has also revealed how the activity of cows 1-2 h after milking is highly affected by farm management. The results obtained indicate that video or automatic recording systems provide adequate data that can be used to effectively analyse cow activity. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.