Do calves hide after birth? Postpartum behavior of dairy calves and their dams housed in individual calving pens.

Under near-natural conditions, domesticated dairy calves hide the first days after birth before cow and calf join the herd. In commercial dairy production, an opportunity to seclude from the herd after parturition is rarely given. This study aimed to investigate the effect of providing a covered area in an individual calving pen on maternal and neonatal calf behavior.

Encoding the Latent Posterior of Bayesian Neural Networks for Uncertainty Quantification.

Bayesian Neural Networks (BNNs) have long been considered an ideal, yet unscalable solution for improving the robustness and the predictive uncertainty of deep neural networks. While they could capture more accurately the posterior distribution of the network parameters, most BNN approaches are either limited to small networks or rely on constraining assumptions, e.g.

Effects of feed energy density, daily milking frequency, and a single injection of cabergoline on behavior and welfare in dairy cows at dry-off.

Drying off dairy cows may challenge animal welfare due to high milk yields. A total of 111 loose-housed Holstein cows yielding >15 kg/d of milk were included in a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design during dry-off to investigate the effects of reduced feeding level (normal vs. reduced energy density), reduced milking frequency (twice vs.