engleski

Analysis of sleeping behaviour in dairy cows

Sleep is a naturally-occurring, reversible, periodic and recurring state in which consciousness and muscular activity is temporarily suspended or diminished, and responsiveness to outside stimuli is reduced. Many human sleep studies have been conducted so far, while animal sleep has not yet been fully explored. Precisely, very little is known about sleeping and resting in dairy cattle, but they do lie down for up to 10-14 hours per day, standing up every few hours, eating, stretching and then lying back down again. Cows need time for eating, drinking, milking, and also for performing social behaviour. Some studies shown that the total amount of sleep and distribution of sleep over 24 hours vary depending on age, health status, pregnancy and lactation. Used method was non-invasive electrophysiological technique for recording sleep in dairy cows for investigation variations in sleep pattern. Changes in the environment also effect on distribution of sleep and behaviour in cows, such as moving cows between groups consequently will be reflected in lying time and feeding behaviour. Moreover, lack of lying and sleep has influence on production and welfare of dairy cows. The aim of this study was to review the importance of lying behaviour and sleep and their impact on dairy cows’ production and welfare.

dairy cows; sleeping; behaviour

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