Impact of Daily Grazing Time on Dairy Cow Welfare—Results of the Welfare Quality® Protocol

Abstract

Simple SummaryIt is often presumed that grazing dairy cows experience better welfare than those that are housed all year round. But is this really the case? In this study, we wanted to find out whether the daily amount of time cows spent on pasture affected their welfare. We used the Welfare Quality® assessment protocol for dairy cattle to measure cow welfare on 32 farms (organic and conventional) once in winter (=housing period) and once in summer (=grazing period, if provided). Farms were grouped according to daily grazing time (‘minor/zero’, ‘medium’, and ‘high’). In farms with grazing, overall welfare improved from winter to summer, whereas the situation in minor/zero grazing farms remained largely unchanged. While we found no overall effect of the amount of daily grazing time on cow welfare, the individual measures “% of cows with hairless patches” and “% of lame cows” received better scores in the high grazing farms. However, other measures e.g., related to water provision, scored worse in the grazing farms in summer as opposed to winter. We conclude that grazing offers a high potential to enhance dairy cow welfare during summer. However, beneficial effects are not guaranteed when the overall management does not satisfy the cows´ needs.AbstractGrazing provides livestock better opportunities to act out their species-specific behavior compared to restrictive stable conditions. The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of daily grazing time on welfare of dairy cows in organic and conventional farms based on the Welfare Quality® assessment protocol for dairy cattle (WQ®). Therefore, we applied the WQ® on 32 dairy farms (classified in 3 groups: Group 0, minor/zero grazing, n = 14; Group 1, medium grazing, n = 10; Group 2, high grazing, n = 8). We assessed the status of animal welfare once in winter and once in summer. For statistical analyses we used mixed models for repeated measures, with group, season, and their interaction as fixed factors. At the WQ® criteria level, five out of nine examined criteria improved in farms with grazing between winter and summer. In contrast, the welfare situation in minor/zero grazing farms remained largely unchanged. At the level of WQ® measures, only the individual parameters “% of cows with hairless patches” and “% of lame cows” were affected positively by high grazing. Grazing offers a potential to enhance welfare of dairy cows during the summer season, while beneficial effects are not guaranteed when management does not satisfy the animals´ needs.

Effects of cubicle characteristics on animal welfare indicators in dairy cattle

“…The average time needed to lie down (5.9 s) was in accordance with values found in France with 5.9 s (de Boyer des Roches et al, 2014) and Germany with 5.7 s (Wagner et al, 2018). Slightly lower lying down durations were measured with 5.2 s in the United Kingdom (Heath et al, 2014).…”

“…Farms had a large number of cows with dirty flanks (68.4%) and dirty udders (44.9%), which was in accordance with previous studies. However, percentages of cows with dirty legs (55.1%) were considerably lower compared with 80% to 90% in the literature (Heath et al, 2014;de Graaf et al, 2017;Wagner et al, 2018). Conceivably, farms of the present study had cleaner walking alleys, which might be explained by higher cleaning frequencies (deVries et al, 2012; de Graaf et al, 2017).…”

“…For example, Haskell et al (2006) found 15% lame cows in farms with pasture access, whereas 39% lame cows were found in zerograzing farms. Similarly, recent studies by Armbrecht et al (2019) and Wagner et al (2018) described lower percentages of lame cows with increasing pasture access (>6 h/day). Dairy cows of the present study had only minor access to pasture (<6 h/day), which might have reduced the beneficial effect of pasture.…”

“…However, average somatic cell scores were not significantly different between the systems (3.1 ± 0.9 v. 3.1 ± 0.9). Similarly, Wagner et al (2018) and Armbrecht et al (2019) found no positive effect of different levels of pasturing on the number of cows with high SCCs. Again, the low proportion of farms providing access to pasture might have influenced the results.…”

“…Deep-bedded cubicles have positive effects on locomotion (Husfeldt and Endres, 2012) and integument alterations (Brenninkmeyer et al, 2013). Pasture access during the summer period is beneficial regarding integument alterations (Haskell et al, 2006) and lameness (Wagner et al, 2018;Armbrecht et al, 2019). Most studies examined the effects of different cubicle characteristics on single animal welfare indicators (e.g.…”