MASSEY
NEWS AND VIEWS
UNIVERSITY
RESEARCH UPDATE
Can cow behaviour influence performance? Muhammad Wasim Iqbal, a PhD student at Massey University’s School of Agriculture and Environment, is using leading-edge technology to study the variation between individual dairy cows’ behaviour and their contributions to overall herd productivity. BACKGROUND To ensure the competitiveness of the dairy industry in New Zealand, a consistent focus is required on lifting dairy production by considering it more in terms of quality, not quantity. In terms of value, not volume. Ultimately, an individual animal’s performance (productivity) has a key role in the overall herd’s performance and the profitability of the farm. Having data on animal performance can help farmers to adjust housing conditions and feed so that their animals produce more,
14 – VetScript October 2020
or better-quality, products. It can also highlight the best- and worst-performing individuals, and aids in decisions on which cows to keep. An individual’s performance is influenced by several factors including genetics, feeding style, reproductive status, health and the overall management of the farming system, each of which has been widely explored (Bareille et al., 2003; Walker et al., 2004). Dairy farming in New Zealand is founded on grass-based grazing production, in which animal performance is believed to be influenced by the animals’
behaviour, particularly grazing and rumination. Grazing behaviour refers to grass intake, and it’s influenced by grass type, climatic conditions and the social status of the animals in the herd (Sowell et al., 1999; Beauchemin, 2018). Rumination behaviour indicates an animal’s digestive efficiency and health status and varies depending on grass quality, type and size. Intake and digestive efficiency (ie, grazing and rumination behaviour) affect the animals’ performance substantially. It’s therefore useful to explore the contribution of animal behaviour to dairy cow performance. Until now it’s been difficult to measure the effects of individual animals’ behaviour on their performance, owing to a lack of tools to measure their behaviour in a commercial grazing-based system. PRECISION LIVESTOCK FARMING Precision livestock farming (PLF), also referred to as the ‘per-animal approach’, uses advanced technologies to optimise the contribution of each animal in a herd’s overall herd performance. It can supplement the eyes and ears of the farmer through real-time monitoring of behaviour, milk production, temperature, and whether the animal is in heat. In some cases it can predict the onset of disease (Rutten et al., 2013). This information can be used by farmers to improve animal performance, welfare, physical health and reproduction and in the overall management of the farming system (Morota et al., 2018).
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