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Dairy cows value access to pasture as highly as fresh feed

Many dairy cows in the developed world are now housed exclusively indoors with fewer than 5% of the 10 million lactating cows in the United States having access to pasture during the grazing season. Indoor housing systems are designed to meet biological needs for food, water, hygiene, and shelter, b...

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Autores principales: von Keyserlingk, Marina A. G., Amorim Cestari, Andressa, Franks, Becca, Fregonesi, Jose A., Weary, Daniel M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5362966/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28332567
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep44953
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author von Keyserlingk, Marina A. G.
Amorim Cestari, Andressa
Franks, Becca
Fregonesi, Jose A.
Weary, Daniel M.
author_facet von Keyserlingk, Marina A. G.
Amorim Cestari, Andressa
Franks, Becca
Fregonesi, Jose A.
Weary, Daniel M.
author_sort von Keyserlingk, Marina A. G.
collection PubMed
description Many dairy cows in the developed world are now housed exclusively indoors with fewer than 5% of the 10 million lactating cows in the United States having access to pasture during the grazing season. Indoor housing systems are designed to meet biological needs for food, water, hygiene, and shelter, but surveys of public and farmer opinion suggest that people think that pasture access is also important for the well-being of dairy cows. To determine if pasture access is important to the cows themselves, we investigated to what extent cows will work to access pasture (by pushing on a weighted gate), and compared it to the motivation to access fresh feed. Cows worked at least as hard to access pasture as they did to access the fresh feed and worked hardest for outdoor access in the evening hours. Echoing public views on what allows for a good life for cattle, these results show that cows are highly motivated for outdoor access.
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spelling pubmed-53629662017-03-24 Dairy cows value access to pasture as highly as fresh feed von Keyserlingk, Marina A. G. Amorim Cestari, Andressa Franks, Becca Fregonesi, Jose A. Weary, Daniel M. Sci Rep Article Many dairy cows in the developed world are now housed exclusively indoors with fewer than 5% of the 10 million lactating cows in the United States having access to pasture during the grazing season. Indoor housing systems are designed to meet biological needs for food, water, hygiene, and shelter, but surveys of public and farmer opinion suggest that people think that pasture access is also important for the well-being of dairy cows. To determine if pasture access is important to the cows themselves, we investigated to what extent cows will work to access pasture (by pushing on a weighted gate), and compared it to the motivation to access fresh feed. Cows worked at least as hard to access pasture as they did to access the fresh feed and worked hardest for outdoor access in the evening hours. Echoing public views on what allows for a good life for cattle, these results show that cows are highly motivated for outdoor access. Nature Publishing Group 2017-03-23 /pmc/articles/PMC5362966/ /pubmed/28332567 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep44953 Text en Copyright © 2017, The Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
von Keyserlingk, Marina A. G.
Amorim Cestari, Andressa
Franks, Becca
Fregonesi, Jose A.
Weary, Daniel M.
Dairy cows value access to pasture as highly as fresh feed
title Dairy cows value access to pasture as highly as fresh feed
title_full Dairy cows value access to pasture as highly as fresh feed
title_fullStr Dairy cows value access to pasture as highly as fresh feed
title_full_unstemmed Dairy cows value access to pasture as highly as fresh feed
title_short Dairy cows value access to pasture as highly as fresh feed
title_sort dairy cows value access to pasture as highly as fresh feed
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5362966/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28332567
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep44953
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