Cow behaviour comes
from people behaviour!
Recent
research on commercial dairy farms in
Australia
has shown that human-animal interactions have marked effects
on the behaviour and productivity of cows.
It
showed high fear levels occur if cow handlers use a high percentage of negative
interactions, such as slaps or hits with a poly-pipe, when handling their cows.
In contrast, fear of humans is low in situations where cow handlers use a high
percentage of positive interactions such as patting, talking and slow deliberate
movement.
The
milk ejection reflex (let-down) is blocked if cows are nervous or frightened. If
the milk ejection hormone (oxytocin) doesn’t reach the udder in time, then
milk let-down doesn’t occur prior to cups-on and after a small initial milk
flow lasting for perhaps 15-20 seconds, there will be little or no milk flow
(and an empty claw bowl) for the next 30 seconds until milk is ejected. If there
is poor let-down, cups crawl up teats, milking time increases, teats are under
more stress and mastitis infections increase.
As
a result there are some simple recommendations –
-
When
handling cows, people should use positive behaviour. Only use negative
behaviour when necessary, such as when a cow refuses to walk forward when it
is being moved.
-
If
a cow is behaving as required, and if there is opportunity, positive
behaviour should be used.
-
It
is important to recognise that the consistent use of even moderate slaps and
hits will result in cows becoming fearful.
It takes only a little further thinking to realise that if dogs or motorbikes
are used as “weapons”, there is little about the experience that is positive
for the cow!
Very
often the changes required to improve cow comfort cost little or nothing to
implement. It may be a cheap
investment to make in terms of a pleasant working environment, let alone other
benefits from production and milk quality.
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