Milking Cows Once Daily Influences Behavior and Udder Firmness at Peak and Mid Lactation

Abstract

Our aim was to evaluate the effects of once-daily milking on the welfare of dairy cows in a pastoral-based farming system. There are concerns that cows milked only once daily may experience discomfort associated with udder distension. We evaluated the behavior, including lying time and postures, grazing patterns, and kicking behavior in the parlor, and measures of udder firmness in cows milked once daily in 2 experiments: 1) at peak lactation, comparing cows milked once (1x) or twice-daily (2x) from the time of calving (n = 4 groups; 1x and 2x treatments); and 2) during the transition from 2x to 1x milking at mid lactation (n = 12 groups; 1x, 2x, and 2x to 1x treatments or TRANS). At peak lactation, cows milked 1x were more likely to lie with their hind legs touching the body than cows milked 2x. There were no differences in udder firmness (1x: 10.0 vs. 2x: 9.9 +/- 0.13 g of force) or kicking (1x: 25 vs. 2x: 24 +/- 7.8%) behavior in the parlor. In the second experiment, milking frequency was reduced from 2x to 1x and this change resulted in an increase in udder firmness (1 x: 9.1, 2x: 9.3, and TRANS: 9.5 +/- 0.14 g of force). Despite these differences in udder firmness, lying time (1x: 10.1, 2x: 9.5, and TRANS: 9.6 +/- 0.38 h/24 h), postures, and concentrations of fecal glucocorticoid metabolites (1x: 10.0, 2x: 10.5, and TRANS: 10.4 +/- 0.49 ng/g of feces in the 3 d after transition) in cows milked 1x or 2x were similar. Although milking frequency did not influence total time spent grazing, the diurnal grazing pattern of cows milked 2x was disrupted by afternoon milking at both peak and mid lactation. Cows milked 2x were able to compensate for this by grazing more after the return to pasture (DIM 153 to 155, 1x: 52 vs. 2x: 66 +/- 6.2 min/90 min of grazing). Cows milked 1x had slightly longer strides than 2x cows at mid lactation (1x: 0.73, 2x: 0.70, and TRANS: 0.70 +/- 0.014 strides/m). In conclusion, under our experimental conditions, we found no overt changes in behavior or physiology to indicate that the welfare of cows milked 1x is impaired.

Once-a-day milking of Holstein and Montbéliarde cows for 7 weeks in mid-lactation

“…The OAD cows demonstrated their discomfort (vocalisations) for a shorter time than in an earlier trial conducted in early lactation where they were separated from the TAD cows every evening at the time of milking (Ré mond et al, 2002), suggesting that it was the separation of the group rather than the skipped milking that caused these effects. This confirms the conclusion of a recent study (Tucker et al, 2007) that behavioural indices do not suggest that cow welfare is impaired by OAD milking. However, certain authors (Stelwagen et al, 1998a;Brulé et al, 2003;Keane et al, 2006) have found that the plasma cortisol level (a potential stress marker) in the OAD cows is higher (sometimes not significantly) than in cows milked twice or thrice daily.…”

Milking frequency affects the circadian body temperature rhythm in dairy cows

“…Body temperature data were also divided into three measurement periods: preswitching (averaged over 3 days, 153−155 DIM), the day of switching milking frequency (156 DIM), and post-switching (blocked into 2 periods: days 1−3 (157−159 DIM) and 4−6 (160−162 DIM) after the change in milking frequency, respectively) before the data were calculated and analysed. Body temperature between 1600 and 2000 h, milk yield and time spent grazing from 1600 to 2000 h (from Tucker et al, 2007) were also analysed on a daily basis. Body temperature data from two 1x cows and one 2x cow were omitted from all analyses because of oestrous activity or technical problems with the intravaginal temperature loggers.…”

“…Additionally, the results presented in this paper are for the same subset of cows used in the body temperature measurements. Grazing behaviour and body temperature were measured in the same sample of cows at peak lactation, and readers are referred to the Tucker et al (2007) publication for further details.…”

Behavior and welfare of dairy cows submitted to drying: Review

“…Apesar de sua importância, ainda existe escassez de informações na literatura científica referente a esse procedimento, mesmo sendo um manejo comum nas fazendas leiteiras (Bertulat et al, 2013). O manejo de secagem quando realizado de forma abrupta em vacas de alta produção é caracterizado por causar um desconforto pelo acúmulo e vazamento de leite após a secagem, devido à pressão existente dentro do úbere e interrupção da ordenha (Tucker et al, 2007, Leitner et al, 2007 As mudanças comportamentais, como o aumento na frequência de vocalização, redução no consumo de ração, tempo prolongado de repouso e mudanças fisiológicas, como úbere aparentemente inchado no período de secagem foram associados a elevados níveis de cortisol e podem ser sinais de desconforto e dor. Adicionalmente, o aumento da frequência de vocalização pode estar associado com a fome e a experiência de sofrimento durante o manejo (Valizaheh et al, 2008, Anil et al, 2002.…”