Effects of one-hour daily outdoor access on milk yield and composition and behaviors of tethered dairy cows.

Objective: We investigated the effects of outdoor access for one-hour per day (ODA) on milk yield and composition and behaviors of tethered dairy cows.

Methods: Eleven all-day tethered dairy cows were treated with ODA for two weeks. To evaluate the effect of ODA on milk yield, we first calculated the average daily milk yield of each cow for three days during two weeks before the ODA, three days before the ODA, three days at the end of the ODA, and three days during two weeks after the ODA.

Effects of one hour daily outdoor access on lying and sleeping postures, and immune traits of tethered cows.

Objective: We investigated the effects of outdoor access for 1 h per day on the animal welfare (AW) of tethered cows, in terms of lying and sleeping postures, and immune function.

Methods: A total of five dry cows were tethered all day indoors (tethering) for 30 days and then tethered indoors with 1 h daily outdoor access (ODA-1h) for 30 days. To analyze the effects of ODA-1h, we calculated the total duration and bout frequency per day, and bout duration of lying and sleeping postures during the last five days of each treatment period.

Effect of different cow floor mat on the pressure in anterior knees of Holstein dry cows determined using pressure measurement sheet.

To analyze limb pain in tethered dairy cows, we compared three cow floor mat materials (pasture mat® [PM], KKM rubber mat® [RM], and woodchip [WC]) with soil ground considering the pressure applied to the anterior knee of Holstein cows. Three Holstein dry cows (791.3 ± 44.

Relationship between foal daily gain, suckling behavior, and the distance between foals and their mares in the first 40 days of life of Hokkaido native horses kept outdoors year-round.

In this study, we investigated suckling behavior and the distance between a foal and its mare as indicators of foal growth in Hokkaido native horses (HKD) during the first 40 days of life. Direct observations were made of 22 mare and foal pairs from two consecutive days 1 and 2, 5 and 6, 10 and 11, 20 and 21, 30 and 31, and 40 and 41 after birth by focal animal sampling for 3 h per day. Suckling behavior was continuously recorded, along with the terminator.

Maternal effect on first-year growth of Hokkaido native foals kept outdoors all year round.

In this study, we investigated maternal effects on the growth of Hokkaido native horses kept outdoors throughout the year. We used the data on body weight (BW), height at withers (HW), heart girth (HG), and cannon circumference (CC) of 517 foals during the first year of life to (1) examine the growth patterns by comparing six linear mixed models and (2) analyze the maternal effect on BW, HW, HG, and CC for each month by estimating variance components. The segmented polynomial third-order regression equation was selected as the best model for all the traits.

Genetic characterization of the endangered Kiso horse using 31 microsatellite DNAs.

In order to contribute to conservation of the endangered Kiso horse, we clarified their genetic information using 31 microsatellite DNAs, and genotyped 125 horses, 83% of the existing breed. First, we clarified the current status of the horses. The horses were confirmed to have experienced rapid loss of population causing a bottleneck, and their effective population size was much smaller than their census size.