Evaluation and selection of cows by behavioral activity

The article presents results of the study of the behavioral activity of Holstein cows in a pen system and robotic milking. The purpose of the work was to study the relationship between dairy productivity and behavioral activity of dairy cows and the selection of animals by nutritional activity. The research was conducted in the conditions of the farm "Mukhametshin Z.Z." by the method of animal observation with the fixation of behavioral acts. In three groups of cows (high, medium and low productivity), a one-factor analysis of variance established the relationship of behavioral acts with dairy productivity of cows. To assess the nutritional activity of cows, a new method was used - according to the index of chewing movements. It was found that cows spend 58.2% of the daily time for their feet, 20.9% of the time for consuming feed, 33.1% of the time for chewing gum. The variability of behavioral acts ranges from 24.0 (feed intake) to 71.7% (chewing gum standing). The animals of the low-yielding group, relatively highly productive, take less time to feed (by 24.4%) and chew gum (by 19.8%), but they lie down more (by 25.4%). There was a significant difference between three groups of cows in such behavioral acts as lying down, standing/moving time, and chewing time. According to the index of chewing movements, cows were divided into a selection group and a production group. It is shown that the animals of the first group outperform the peers of the second group in terms of milk productivity by 27%. In this regard, it is proposed to consider this indicator as a breeding one, which will allow to achieve an increase in milk productivity