Parity and days in milk affect cubicle occupancy in dairy cows

Modern dairy cattle farms are usually equipped with cubicle systems to provide cows comfortable conditions for lying down and resting. Cows free choose any they want, but in reality, do not distribute themselves uniformly throughout the barn. There many factors that affect where a cow lies down, such as hierarchy of cow, access resources, traffic nearby, etc. In this study, we used real-time location system data from two commercial examine patterns occupancy relation parity lactation stage. We summarized over several days compared different areas Our findings suggest that, general, there was higher cubicles close feeding areas. High lay more frequently milking area opposed first tend occupy less busy The overall conclusion is uniform barn, related DIM seen. This information can be important future studies on spread diseases management purposes.