Comfort Zone-Design Free Stalls: Do They Influence the Stall Use Behavior of Lame Cows?

Abstract

The behavior of 59 cows in 4 herds, each with Comfort Zone-design free stalls with dimensions suitable for 700-kg, mature Holstein dairy cows, was filmed for a 48-h period. Comparison was made between nonlame, slightly lame, and moderately lame cows on either rubber-crumb-filled mattress stall surfaces bedded with a small amount of sawdust (2 herds) or a Pack Mat design, which consisted of a rubber-crumb-filled mattress pad installed 5 cm below a raised rear curb, bedded with 5 to 8 cm of sand bedding (2 herds). All other stall design components were similar. Despite adequate resting space and freedom to perform normal rising and lying movements, lame cows on mattresses stood in the stall for >2 h longer than nonlame cows. Although a significant increase in stall standing behavior was observed in lame cows on Pack Mat stalls, the mean (95% confidence interval) standing time in the stall was only 0.7 (0 to 3.0) h/d for nonlame cows and 1.6 (0 to 4.2) h/d for moderately lame cows, which was less than the 2.1 (0 to 4.4), 4.3 (1.6 to 6.9), and 4.9 (2.5 to 7.3) h/d spent standing in the stall for nonlame, slightly lame, and moderately lame cows on mattresses, respectively. This observation supports the hypothesis that it is the nature of the stall surface that dictates changes in stall standing behavior observed in lame cows, rather than other components of stall design. The finding that only 5 to 8 cm of sand over a mattress pad provides most of the benefits of deep sand-bedded stalls, along with other advantages related to stall maintenance and manure handling, gives farmers another useful housing alternative with which to improve cow comfort and well-being.

Lying behavior as an indicator of lameness in dairy cows

“…Increasing lying times may be more difficult on mattress stalls if these restrict the lying down and standing up movement (leading to the increased standing times reported by Cook et al, 2004Cook et al, , 2008. In general, when stalls are restrictive, limiting transitions from lying to standing and vice versa, cows spend more time standing in the stall instead of lying down (Tucker et al, , 2005.…”

“…Numbers of cows that are SEVLAME [Numerical Rating Score (NRS) = 4; 1] or not (NRS <4; 0) in each of the threshold categories, for 11 farms using deep-bedded stalls, odds ratios (OR) and 95% CI for SEVLAME, sensitivity (Se) and specificity (Sp) of each threshold estimated by logistic regression including parity as a covariate and farm as a random effect practical tools for detecting lameness on-farm. An effect of stall surface on the behavior of lame cows has been reported; Cook et al (2008) found that lame cows increased standing time in the stall by 3.3 h/d on mattress stalls compared with stalls bedded with 5 to 8 cm of sand. In the current study, the SEVLAME cows increased lying time by 1.6 h/d in DB stalls (comparable to sand stalls), but no difference was found for MAT stalls.…”

“…Stall standing behavior has been identified as a key behavior that changes in response to lameness (Cook et al, 2004(Cook et al, , 2008. Furthermore, increased time spent perching, with only 2 front feet inside the stall, was a risk factor for lameness .…”

“…Descriptive summaries were obtained using the SUMMARY and FREQ procedures of SAS (SAS Institute, 2004). Data from farms using deep-bedded stalls (DB; n = 11 farms and 526 cows) and farms using mattresses (MAT; n = 17 farms and 793 cows) were analyzed separately because there is evidence that stall surface affects the behavior of lame cows (Cook et al, 2004(Cook et al, , 2008; preliminary analysis of the current data showed an interaction (P < 0.02) between stall surface and NRS. Table 1 provides the descriptive summary of the cows used in analyses.…”

“…Juarez et al (2003) compared the lying behavior of cows with varying degrees of lameness and found that the proportion of cows lying down within each category increased with the degree of lameness. Cook et al (2004Cook et al ( , 2008 found that the type of lying surface affected the behavioral changes due to lameness; lame cows spent more time standing in stalls than nonlame cows, but this difference was greater with mattress stalls compared with sand stalls. These findings show that the resting environment plays an important role in the extent to which behavior is modified by lameness.…”