behaviour

Bijeenkomst: EGF2015
Auteur: Jørgensen G.H.M., Eilertsen S.M., Hansen I. and Aanensen L.
ISBN: 978-9090-289-61-8
Jaar van uitgifte: 2015
Producttype: Paper
The aim of the experiment was to investigate the activity and behaviour of dairy cows with access to different outdoor areas. The study took place on two commercial farms with loose-housing and automatic milking systems (AMS). One farm offered 2.8 hectares of green pasture and the other offered a 0.7-hectare exercise pen. Sixty-six percent of the cows with access to green pasture went outside whenever possible. More activity was observed on ‘pasture-days’. Most observations were spent grazing (72.2%). Milk yield was, however, lower (P

Bijeenkomst: EGF2015
Auteur: Delagarde R. and Lemonnier J.P.
ISBN: 978-9090-289-61-8
Jaar van uitgifte: 2015
Producttype: Paper
Several commercially available devices automatically record feeding behaviour of dairy cows on farm, but independent validation studies are often not available. The objective of this study was to determine the accuracy of the FeedPhone® device, developed in France by Medria, to record eating and rumination activities of dairy cows. The FeedPhone is based on a tri-axial accelerometer placed on a collar, data being radio-transferred and processed automatically. The main activity (eating, rumination, or rest) is recorded every 5 min. Validation was performed on 7 lactating dairy cows fed on maize silage and concentrates for a total of 89 full day records. The actual times were determined by a reference method, by recording continuously the weight of the trough and the jaw movements at the minute scale. At the day level, the mean prediction error was 11.5% for eating time and 11.1% for rumination times, with low mean and slope biases (error mainly random). Eating and rumination activities are clearly distinguishable. This precision enables the detection of between-day variations of both eating or rumination times of 20, 10, and 5%, at cow level, small-herd level (4-7 cows) and larger herd level (>20 cows), respectively. This accuracy makes the FeedPhone valuable for studying relative variations of both eating and rumination times of dairy cows fed on total mixed ration.