Measuring water intake (WI) at individual level is challenging in dairy cattle and rather unexplored because it requires hi-tech equipment. By monitoring 8 tie-stall Holstein cows under experimental condition at the University of Bologna teaching farm (spring 2024), we compared daytime (h 05:00-23:59) and night (h 00:00-04:59) number of visits at the individual drinker and we then evaluated if the WI at each bout changes during the day. Cows were monitored for 4 weeks and, on average, they drunk 24.55±11.65 times per day, with 6.85±6.05 L/bout. A linear mixed model with cow and date as random effects was used to compare the daytime vs night number of bouts (NB) and WI. A second model was used to estimate the WI/bout in each hour to study the 24 h variability. NB significantly differed between daytime and night (19.41 vs 2.62). While the same can be said for WI (8.33 vs 7.79 L/bout), the difference was less evident compared to NB. The WI/bout was the greatest generally after milking, e.g., the maximum estimate was at 6:00 o’clock (10.95 L). Drinking behaviour and WI are variable within the 24 h, but these findings should be validated considering cows reared in free stall barn.
Costa, A., Bovo, M., Cavallini, D., Lamanna, M., Formigoni, A., Magrin, L., et al. (2024). DAYTIME AND NIGHT WATER INTAKE AND DRINKING BEHAVIOUR IN LACTATING HOLSTEIN COWS.
DAYTIME AND NIGHT WATER INTAKE AND DRINKING BEHAVIOUR IN LACTATING HOLSTEIN COWS
Angela Costa;Marco Bovo;Damiano Cavallini;Martina Lamanna;Andrea Formigoni;Giulio Visentin
2024
Abstract
Measuring water intake (WI) at individual level is challenging in dairy cattle and rather unexplored because it requires hi-tech equipment. By monitoring 8 tie-stall Holstein cows under experimental condition at the University of Bologna teaching farm (spring 2024), we compared daytime (h 05:00-23:59) and night (h 00:00-04:59) number of visits at the individual drinker and we then evaluated if the WI at each bout changes during the day. Cows were monitored for 4 weeks and, on average, they drunk 24.55±11.65 times per day, with 6.85±6.05 L/bout. A linear mixed model with cow and date as random effects was used to compare the daytime vs night number of bouts (NB) and WI. A second model was used to estimate the WI/bout in each hour to study the 24 h variability. NB significantly differed between daytime and night (19.41 vs 2.62). While the same can be said for WI (8.33 vs 7.79 L/bout), the difference was less evident compared to NB. The WI/bout was the greatest generally after milking, e.g., the maximum estimate was at 6:00 o’clock (10.95 L). Drinking behaviour and WI are variable within the 24 h, but these findings should be validated considering cows reared in free stall barn.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
