Consistency of individual behavioural characteristics of dairy cows in their home pen

The aim of this study was to identify reliable individual behavioural characteristics of dairy cows based on aspects of their spontaneous behaviour and their reactions towards behavioural tests performed in their home pen. The parameters measured were supposed to reflect how easily the behaviour of subjects is influenced by environmental stimuli. In addition, their overall activity and aspects of their agonistic behaviour were recorded. It was hypothesised that reliable measures of these behavioural characteristics are consistent over time and across situations. The spontaneous behaviour of 31 subjects kept in a loose-housing system was recorded throughout four consecutive days at intervals of 5 min using a telemetric system, For each cow, the total amount of locomotion/ standing, the mean duration of lying periods, and an index reflecting the day-to-day variation of behavioural activity was calculated. An agonistic-index was calculated based on the outcome of agonistic interactions (i.e. pushes followed by a displacement) at the feeding rack. The reaction of subjects towards environmental stimuli was experimentally tested by a visual obstacle test, a tail fixation test, and an air puff test. All recordings were repeated three times at an interval of 1 month each. The duration of lying periods (r(s) from 0.435 to 0.726), the time of locomotion/standing (r(s) from 0.522 to 0.677), the agonistic-index (r(s) from 0.449 to 0.658), and the reaction towards the air puff test (r(s) from 0,535 to 0.782) were significantly correlated between repetitions. The reactions towards the visual obstacle were significantly correlated between the first and the second test repetition (exploration: r(s) = 0.491. latency to cross r(s) = 0.496), and the values of both measures decreased across repetitions (both P < 0.01). The reaction towards the tail fixation was not consistent over time (r(s) from 0.083 to 0,562). All measures of the spontaneous behaviour were significantly correlated with one another (r(s) from 0,457 to 0.715 and from -0.512 to -0.582), except the agonistic-index which did not correlate with the duration of locomotion/standing (r(s) = -0.112). There was hardly any consistent relationship neither within the measures of the behavioural tests nor between the measures of the spontaneous behaviour and the behavioural tests. It is concluded that the measures of the spontaneous behaviour form reliable individual characteristics. Such measures may he useful to predict the stress responsiveness of individuals in advance. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.