Research Project

Lying is a high priority behaviour in cattle and of high welfare relevance as disturbances around resting may contribute to frustration, impaired recuperation, an increased risk of lameness and to alterations or injuries of hair, skin and joints. A wide variety of possible measures for behaviour around resting is available, but their suitability as on-farm welfare assessment measures is limited or has not yet been investigated.

The aim of this study was to investigate measures of resting behaviour with regard to their feasibility and reliability (inter-observer repeatability and variability over time (short-, mid-, long-term consistency)) in the framework of an on-farm welfare assessment tool. Therefore observations of 20 measures of resting behaviour were recorded on 35 dairy cow and 20 beef bull farms with different housing conditions on three occasions.

This study is part of the European research project Welfare-Quality® and was conducted in cooperation with the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences in Vienna.

• Nina Hesse
• Gudrun Plesch
• Ute Knierim

• Brörkens, N.,  Laister, S., Lolli, S., Zucca, D., Winckler, C., Minero, M., Canali, E., Knierim, U. (2009): Reliability of measures of injurious and abnormal behaviour in dairy and beef cattle. In: Forkman, B., Keeling, L. (eds.): Assessment of animal welfare measures for dairy cattle, beef bulls and veal calves. Welfare Quality reports 11, Cardiff, UK, 57-69
• Brörkens, N., Plesch, G., Laister, S., Zucca, D., Winckler, C., Minero, M., Knierim, U. (2009): Reliability testing concerning behaviour around resting in cattle in dairy cows and beef bulls.  In: Forkman, B., Keeling, L. (eds.): Assessment of animal welfare measures for dairy cattle, beef bulls and veal calves. Welfare Quality reports 11, Cardiff, UK, 7-24
• Plesch, g., Broerkens, n., Laister, S., Knierim, u., Winckler, c. (2009): Evaluation of different measures of rising and lying down difficulties for the on-farm welfare assessment of dairy cows. In: Abstracts of the Joint East Central and West Central Europe ISAE regional meeting. 25.-26.09., Vienna, Austria, p. 10
• Plesch, G., Broerkens, N., Laister, S., Winckler, C., Knierim, U. (2008): Reliability testing concerning behaviour around resting in dairy cows. In: Proc. 4th Int. Workshop of the Assessment of Animal Welfare at Farm and Group Level (WAFL). 10.–13.09., Ghent, Belgium,  p. 87
• Plesch, G., Broerkens, N., Laister, S., Winckler, C., Knierim, U. (2010): Reliability and feasibility of selected measures concerning resting behaviour fort he on-farm welfare assessment in dairy cows. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 126, 19-26

2004-2009