Routine activities and emotion in the life of dairy cows: Integrating body language into an affective state framework

Abstract

We assessed dairy cows’ body postures while they were performing different stationary activities in a loose housing system and then used the variation within and between individuals to identify potential connections between specific postures and the valence and arousal dimensions of emotion. We observed 72 individuals within a single milking herd focusing on their ear, neck and tail positions while they were: feeding from individual roughage bins, being brushed by a mechanical rotating brush and queuing to enter a single automatic milking system. Cows showed different ear, neck and tail postures depending on the situation. When combined, their body posture during feeding was ears back up and neck down, with tail wags directed towards the body, during queuing their ears were mainly axial and forward, their neck below the horizontal and the tail hanging stationary, and during brushing their ears were backwards and asymmetric, the neck horizontal and the tail wagging vigorously. We then placed these findings about cow body posture during routine activities into an arousal/valence framework used in animal emotion research (dimensional model of core affect). In this way we generate a priori predictions of how the positions of the ears, neck and tail of cows may change in other situations, previously demonstrated to vary in valence and arousal. We propose that this new methodology, with its different steps of integration, could contribute to the identification and validation of behavioural (postural) indicators of how positively or negatively cows experience other activities, or situations, and how calm or aroused they are. Although developed here on dairy cattle, by focusing on relevant postures, this approach could be easily adapted to other species.

Effects of Different Stroking Styles on Behaviour and Cardiac Parameters in Heifers

“…To meaningfully compare our results regarding ear positions with previous findings, differences in the definitions of ear positions need to be considered. Often, specific discrete ear postures are defined [26,32] and their frequency or duration is recorded, which means that ear positions divergent from the predefined postures might not be recorded or analysed. It is not reported which degree of divergence from the definition is allowed for an ear position to still be included in that definition.…”

“…Recently, facial expressions have been investigated as potential indicators of affective states in animals (reviewed by Descovich et al [25]). In cattle, ear positions and movements in particular have come into the focus of scientific research on affective states [26][27][28][29]. Social interactions and positive affective states can also affect cardiac parameters.…”

Doing nothing and what it looks like… Inactivity in fattening cattle

“…For example, one of the most commonly shown ear postures in this and other studies, ears backwards, has been described as reflecting both a positive state (e.g. de Oliveira and Keeling, 2018;Proctor and Carder, 2014) and a negative state (e.g. Boissy et al, 2011 in sheep;Gleerup et al, 2015).…”

“…Previous studies of inactivity did live observations as well, e.g. in mink (Meagher et al, 2017;Meagher and Mason, 2012), mice (Fureix et al, 2016), horses (Fureix et al, 2012) and in a study recording ear, neck and tail postures in dairy cattle (de Oliveira and Keeling, 2018). During the observations, the observer stood on a ladder (feet approximately 80 cm above the ground) to have a better view into the pen, e.g.…”

A Pilot Study on Evaluation The Far Position of Some Daily Activity of Cows

“…Süt sığırlarında farklı aktiviteler (yem yeme, mekanik döner bir fırça ile fırçalanma ve otomatik sağım) esnasında süt ineklerinin kulak, boyun ve kuyruk pozisyonlarının incelendiği bir çalışmada, yem yeme ve fırçalanma esnasında geri yukarı şeklindeki kulak pozisyonu daha fazla, ileri kulak pozisyonu da en az gözlemlenmiştir. 30 Yapılan bu çalışmada da araştırıcıların bulgularından farklı şekilde, yem yeme ve fırçalanma süresince en çok gözlenen kulak pozisyonu eksen boyunca, en az gözlenen ise geri aşağı olmuştur. Buradaki kulak pozisyonları daha önceden yapılan çalışmalarda sık sık ele alınmıştır.…”