Monitoring dairy cow behaviour to assess the effect of the housing and management system on animal welfare

Animal behaviour is one of the indicators of animal welfare and can be used to assess how different housing systems and management strategies affect the herd. Precision Livestock Farming tools can concretely help the farmer to monitor the behaviour of each individual animal in the barn. In order to implement these techniques, it is however necessary to define the relationships between cow behaviour and environmental parameters like temperature humidity index (THI). The present study aimed to evaluate the influence of climatic conditions (temperature and relative humidity) on the behaviour of a group of primiparous dairy cows. Behavioural activities of all cows in the group were monitored by continuous video recording for 296 days (from September to July). To assess the effects of THI on the behaviours logistic regression analysis has been applied. Results confirmed that THI can affect behavioural indices. The average daily lying index varied from 54% in winter to 43% in summer despite in the latter period THI values were much lower than the heat stress threshold (average THI: 74). The statistical approach adopted in this study, after a validation process through the use of accelerometers, could be the starting point for the development of predictive models. The use of this kind of tool, may offer a valid support to the farmer to monitor cow behaviours and to adopt mitigation measures in case of heat stress.