Systematic Evaluation of Different Fresh Cow Monitoring Procedures

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Metabolic and infectious diseases in dairy cows around parturition are frequent. The routine monitoring of fresh cows is recommended to detect diseases at an early stage. This, however, prevents the cows from eating and lying down, which decreases milk yield, and is time consuming for farmers, resulting in reluctant implementation on farms. Optimizing fresh cow management procedures can therefore improve efficiency and increase farmers’ acceptance of the programs. In this study, the duration of different routine examinations and treatments during fresh cow management procedures were systematically evaluated under practical conditions. In addition, different workflow strategies were investigated to determine how lock-up times could be reduced. Moreover, the proportion of examination and treatment times relative to the total headlock time was analyzed. Different examination and treatment times were found during routine fresh cow checks. Furthermore, the lock-up times differed significantly among the different strategies, as well as the proportion. This study provides information that can be used as a basis for the development of time-efficient strategies, and to minimize the impact on cows’ time budgets as well as for future herd health management strategies, including economic evaluations. ABSTRACT: Establishing fresh cow monitoring procedures is considered beneficial for cow health, welfare, and productivity. However, they are time consuming and require the cows to be locked up, which restricts their natural behavior. In this study, different fresh cow monitoring procedures were evaluated. Two experiments were conducted to determine: (1) the duration of various examinations and treatments; (2) the time cows remain locked up in headlocks; and (3) the proportion of examination and treatment times relative to the total headlock time. In advance, standard operating procedures were established. Three veterinarians conducted the examinations and treatments based on changes in milk yield, clinical symptoms, and alarms by an accelerometer system. The headlock time was evaluated for three workflow strategies, which differed in the order of examinations and treatments. To determine the duration, cameras were installed, and the video footage was analyzed. The examinations lasted between 1 and 227 s, and the cows were locked up in headlocks between 0.01 and 1.76 h. The lock-up times differed significantly among the three strategies, as well as the proportion. This study provides information that can be used as a basis for the development of time-efficient strategies, and to minimize the impact on cows’ time budgets.