Relationship of cow behavioral performance with milk productivity in the conditions of robotic milking

¹ Kazan State Academy of Veterinary Medicine named after N.E. Bauman, Kazan 420029, Russia
² Kazan State Agrarian University, Kazan 420015, Russia

^* Corresponding author: mehksavm@mail.ru

Abstract

Research has been conducted to study the cow’s behavioral acts of the Tatarstan type of Kholmogory breed and their relationship with milk productivity in the robotic milking system. It was found that cows spend 706.7 minutes, or 49.1 % of the daily time, in the lying position, and 733.3 minutes, or 50.1 %, in the standing position. Animals spend 283.7 minutes (19.7 % of the daily time) on taking food, 497.3 minutes (34.5 %) on rumination, of which 150 minutes (10.4 %) – standing, 347.3 (24.1) – lying down. 232.3 minutes (16.1 %) of the time the cows stood in one place and were inactive. The movement took 42.7 minutes or 3 % of the daily time. After dividing the cows into 3 groups by productivity was found that highly productive animals were milked 1.9 times more compared to low-productivity animals (4.7 versus 2.7 times). They also spent more time standing (34.5 %), consumed more food (21.0 %), and chewed less cud (13.9 %). Animals assigned to the active and ultra-active groups by the motor activity index outperformed animals of the infro-passive and passive groups by 26.9 % in daily milking.