Page 346 - The Welfare of Cattle

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Cow Comfort in Intensive and extensive
Dairy housing Systems

Jesse Robbins
Iowa State University
Alex Beck
Banks Veterinary Service

CONteNtS

Brief Overview of Common Dairy Housing Systems ...................................................................324
Tie Stalls ....................................................................................................................................324
Free Stalls ..................................................................................................................................324
Other/Mixed Systems ................................................................................................................325
Pasture-Based Systems ..............................................................................................................325
Problem with System-Level Comparisons .....................................................................................326
Leg Health: Lameness and Leg Injuries ........................................................................................326
Mastitis ...........................................................................................................................................328
Stocking Density, Grouping Strategy, and Feeding Behavior ........................................................329
Thermal Stress ............................................................................................................................... 331
Conclusions .................................................................................................................................... 332
References ...................................................................................................................................... 333

When many people think of dairy farming they imagine cows grazing on lush pastures (Cardoso
et al., 2015). While grazing-based systems are common in many parts of the world (e.g., Oceania,
Chile, Brazil), indoor, zero-grazing systems are much more common in most of the developed world
(Barkema et al., 2015). Although there are many benefits associated with the shift to these more
intensive systems, it is widely acknowledged they also come with numerous challenges for cattle
welfare (Robbins et al., 2016). These include many traditional veterinary and animal science con-
cerns such as high rates of disease, including lameness, mastitis, and other production diseases
(Garry, 2004), but also increasingly negative public perceptions associated with a perceived lack of
naturalness (Weary et al., 2016).
In response, there is a growing focus on understanding how dairy cattle interact with their engi-
neered environment in hopes of striking a more reasonable balance between the needs of people
working on the farm and the needs of the cows. Much of this work has relied on merging the fields of
veterinary medicine and ethology with aspects of facility design and management. Behavioral stud-
ies often rely on paradigms that include observational and experimental preference and motivation

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