Behaviour, performance and health indicators of welfare for dairy cows housed in strawyard or cubicle systems

Objective methods are required to assess the welfare of livestock in different environments. Two experiments were conducted to determine comparative indicators of welfare in the two most common loose-housing systems for dairy cows, strawyards and cubicles. Experiment I examined the animal responses to the two housing systems with 16 high- and 16 low-yielding Holstein Friesian cows in a changeover design over two, 4-week periods, Experiment LI was carried out over 17 weeks to assess the longer-term responses to the two systems with 24 Holstein Friesian cows. In experiment I cows in the strawyard system had a significantly greater lying time, ruminating time and synchronisation of lying behaviour than the cubicle system. The cows were significantly cleaner in the cubicle system but there were no significant differences between systems in milk production, cell count or locomotion score. High yield cows had a shorter lying time but longer feeding time than low yield cows. The cows of different milk yield level responded similarly to the housing systems, indicating that cows of high milk yield do not require different housing systems from low yield cows. In experiment LI there were no significant differences between housing systems in lying, ruminating or synchronisation of lying behaviour. Milk yields were significantly lower in the strawyard than in the cubicle system due to a significantly higher incidence of clinical mastitis. Cell-counts were significantly lower and cows were significantly cleaner in cubicles. There were no significant effects of housing system on hoof dimensions, locomotion score or clinical lameness. It was concluded that total lying time, lying synchrony, milk cell count and locomotion score are potential indicators for the assessment of dairy cow welfare in different housing environments, (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.