| dc.description.abstract | The lying time of high yielding cows is crucial for maximizing milk production and their welfare. When lying down, cows will ruminate and the bloodstream to the udder is larger, which stimulates milk production. The average lying time at farms, according to previous reports, is around 12 hours, while high yielding cows should lie down for at least 14 hours. Automatic milking systems (AMS) allow cows to decide themselves how much time they spend on eating, lying and being milked. The hypothesis is, that they will spend more time on lying than cows housed at farms with a conventional milking system. With the use of sensors, the total duration of the lying time, the amount of lying bouts and the duration of the individual bouts were measured at 14 farms in the Netherlands, from April to June 2016, with conventional milking parlors (n=7) or an AMS (N=7). The farms had free stalls with deep litter bedding (N=5) or mattresses (n=9). The results showed that cows housed at farms with a conventional parlor had a longer total lying time (12.2h ± 0.13 (SEM)) per day during the experimental period than cows housed at farms with an AMS (12.08h ± 0.15) and had a higher number of lying bouts (6.7 ± 0.08 (SEM) vs. 6.4 ± 0.09 (SEM) with a shorter individual duration (122.3m ± 2.53 (SEM) vs. 127.1m ± 2.91 (SEM)) (P<0.05). The results of the transition period were split and showed that during the dry period, there is no difference in lying time between conventional and AMS farms: 13.07 ± 0.04 (SEM) vs. 13.12 ± 0.05 (SEM) hours per day. The difference in lying time up to day 6 after calving is 42 minutes where cows at AMS farms lie down for 10.4 ± 0.2 (SEM) hours and cows at farms with conventional parlors for 11.1 ± 0.11 (SEM) hours. From day 19 post-partum the difference in hours was 6 minutes, 10.69 ± 0.016 (SEM) hours for the conventional parlors and 10.59 ± 0.019 (SEM) hours for the automatic milking systems. Cows at farms with deep litter bedding had longer lying times than at farms with mattresses throughout the period studied (12.6 ± 0.14 (SEM) hours vs 11.8 ± 0.14 (SEM) hours). The results of this experiment, provides a new insight in the way that cows should be accommodated to optimize the production of milk and welfare status of the individual cow and can function as a standard for future commercial farms with building plans. | |
