Observations of Dairy Cow Activities in Loose-Housing

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Abstract
Activity patterns of a herd of Brown Swiss cows wintered in a loose-housing barn with outside self-feeding of hay and silage are descr. When the cows had access to silage, they spent an avg. of 5.2 hrs. daily eating, 5.1 hrs. loitering in the yard, 4.3 hrs. loitering in the lounge, and 8.2 hours resting. When hay alone was available, the eating time remained unchanged, but the cows spent 2.7 hrs. daily loitering in the yard, 5.1 hrs. loitering in the lounge, and 10.7 hrs. resting. A series of 18 weekly detns. of the rectal temps., pulse, and respiration rates of 6 Holstein cows in a stanchion barn was compared with results obtained with the Brown Swiss cows. The rectal temps. and respiration rates of the Brown Swiss were significantly lower than the avg. of the Holsteins. The avg. pulse rate of the Brown Swiss was significantly higher than that of the Holsteins for the first 9 wks. During the 2d 9 wks. the Brown Swiss pulse rate was significantly lower than that of the cows in the stanchion barn. These measurements could not be correlated with changes in environmental temp.

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