Influence of Cooling Systems on the Behaviour of Dairy Cows Housed in Cubicle Barn

The aim of this paper is to collect information about dairy cow＇s behaviour connected to different environmental conditions. During summer 2009 and winter 2010 experimental trials were arranged to verify the behaviour of dairy cows in a farm located in Po Plain （Italy）. The barn was provided with an air-water cooling system, based on the use of fans and sprinklers placed only in the feeding alley. Two different trials were carried out. The first experiment was targeted on verifying the use of the cubicles by the cows in relation to the availability of the cooling system only in feeding area. The second trial aimed at testing the effectiveness of zone cooling systems placed in the front of cubicles. For this purpose three cubicles in the barn were provided with cooling systems, based on the input of high velocity conditioned air streams. The results clearly remark that the behaviour of the animals is greatly influenced by the environmental conditions. With high temperatures the use of the cubicles is deeply reduced and the animals prefer to stay in feeding area, thus benefiting from the cooling effect of water sprinkled by the showers and of the air streams created by the fans. With air temperatures increasing from 21℃ to 33 ℃ the cows reduce the staying in the cubicles, which gets down from 540 to 32% （r2 = 0.2608）. As regards the efficacy of zone cooling system in the cubicles, the results are not particularly encouraging. The cows continue to use the cubicles without changing the behaviour in relation to the presence of conditioned air flow.

Assessment of Negative Training on the Use of Cubicle Beds by Heifers

40 in-calf heifers were observed to examine the effect of timbers placing in passage area on their use of cubicle beds. Prior to the experiment preliminary observation was taken on these 40 heifers and they were divided into two even groups (cubicle user(or control) group versus cubicle refusal (or experimental) group by whether they properly used the cubicle beds or not. The timbers were placed in passage and feeding areas for the cubicle refusal group to force the animls to lie in the cubicle beds. The results of this experiment showed that feeding behaviour was unaffected by the presence of the timbers, but lying acitvity was about 8% higher for the experimental group, which led to a mean of almost 2 hours longer lying time over 24 h. After the timbers were removed, there was a significant decline in lying by the experimental group. The diurnal pattern of lying behaviour in cubicles indicated that the major effect on lying activity exerted by the presence of the timbers was seen during midnight to 10:00 am. Also during this times, the experimental group in the pres-ence of the timbers tended to show more lying in cubicles than control group. At the end of the experiment, 95% of the heifers were found to be correctly using the cubicle beds, and on the negative side three heifers developed a slight injury on their legs or hocks caused by the timber.