Slide 1

Faculty of Animal Sciences and Biotechnologies Timioara, Romnia RESEARCHES REGARDING RESTING BEHAVIOUR IN LACTATING DAIRY COWS DURING FIRST HUNDRED DAYS AFTER CALVING CERCETRI PRIVIND COMPORTAMENTUL DE ODIHN LA VACILE DE LAPTE AFLATE N PRIMELE 100 DE ZILE DE LA FTARE GAVOJDIAN D., CZISZTER L.T., ACATINCI S., TRIPON I., BAUL SIMONA Slide 2 . Materials and Methods * 20 Romanian Black and White multiparous cows * in their first hundred days of lactation * housed in a tied stanchion barn * experiments were carried out in two seasons (February and July 2008) * concrete housing stalls * bedding material - straws (3-5 kg per day/cow) Slide 3 . * data regarding environmental temperatures was recorded * the barn was under continuous lightning * were treated as a single group * had free access to water * behavior was monitored using 4 video cameras connected to a video capture device of 125 fps * cows were milked twice a day Slide 4 . daily ration during summer : - 30 kg alfalfa fresh feed - 4 kg concentrates - 5 kg browers yeast * Two meals per day daily ration during winter: - 20 kg corn silage - 8 kg lolium hay - 3 kg concentrates - 4 kg browers yeast * Two meals per day Slide 5 Winter seasonTotal restStandingLying 7-14 XS x 145.054.80110.306.4134.755.29 SD21.4928.6923.69 14-21 XS x 137.707.33108.709.1829.004.31 SD32.7841.0619.27 21-7 XS x 92.2010.8258.406.3533.806.16 SD48.4128.4227.55 On 24 hours XS x 379.9515.33277.4013.6697.5512.17 SD68.5761.1254.44 Table 1 Resting activity during winter season Slide 6 Summer seasonTotal restStandingLying 7-14 XS x 200.258.41159.6011.1240.658.22 SD37.6549.7636.77 14-21 XS x 182.659.46130.9511.9851.709.11 SD42.3453.6040.74 21-7 XS x 230.7514.54163.1020.2267.6510.84 SD65.0490.4448.52 On 24 hours XS x 613.7519.33453.6529.85160.0019.83 SD86.46133.5388.70 Table 2 Resting activity during summer season Slide 7 Total restStandingLying Winter-Summer Segment I- 55.20 ***- 49.30 *- 5.90 ns Segment II- 44.95 **- 22.25 ns - 22.70 ns SegmentuIII- 138.55 ***- 104.70 ***- 33.85 * On 24 hours- 233.80 ***- 176.25 ***- 62.45 *** Table 3 Significance differences for resting behavior between the two seasons Slide 8 Conclusions - During winter, cows spent resting 379.9 minutes (6.33 hours), value that represents 26.38 % from the days interval - Cows spent resting while standing on average 277.40 minutes, and while lying only 97.55 minutes - Time devoted to rest during summer per 24 hours was 613.75 minutes (10.22 hours), value that represents 42.60% from the days interval - Position adopted by cows for resting was registered as follows, 453.65 minutes in standing position and 160 minutes while lying recumbent - Differences registered between the two seasons for time spent resting and position adopted during resting periods, were very significantly statistically (p 0.001) Slide 9 Thank you!