Using Indices of Cow Comfort to Predict Stall Use and Lameness

Twelve Wisconsin dairy herds were selected to include six sand freestall herds and six mattress freestall herds. For the duration of one 24 hour period, the mature cow high group pen on each farm was video filmed. For each herd, the film was analyzed every hour in order to determine the number of cows in the pen that were lying down, standing in the stall with all four feet and perching in the stall with the rear two feet in the alley, standing in the alley, drinking and feeding. From these data, for each hour, three cow comfort indices were calculated namely; the Cow Comfort Index (CCI: proportion of cows in stalls that are lying down), the Stall Standing Index (SSI: proportion of cows in stalls that are standing ie. 1-CCI) and the Proportion Eligible Lying or Stall Usage Index (PEL: proportion of cows not eating that are lying down). Daily times spent lying down in the stall and times spent standing in the stall were obtained for 10 cows in each herd. All cows in the high group pen were locomotion scored using the four point system described by Cook (2003).