Study Regarding Rumination Behavior in Cattle – Position Adopted by Cows During Rumination Process

Abstract

Aim of this research was to describe some aspects regarding the position adopted by lactating dairy cows during rumination process. Researches were carried out on 20 multiparous Romanian Black and White cows, housed in total confinement in a tied stanchion barn. Cows were in their first 100 days of lactation. During current study the rumination position adopted by cows (lying or standing) and time spent ruminating was registered (by means of total duration, time length of a rumination period and number of ruminating periods) per 24 h and on day segments. Position adopted by cows while ruminating was compared between summer and winter seasons, using video material recorded using a professional system CC9622BIR with four channels and a capacity of 125 frames per second. During winter season, cows spent ruminating per 24 h on average 186.35 minutes (3.10 hours) in standing position and 324.05 (5.40 hours) minutes while lying. In the summer season, cows adopted standing position during the rumination process on average 225.35 minutes (3.75 hours) and 176.45 (2.94 hours) minutes while lying down. Season had little influence on the standing position during rumination (39 minutes, p>0.05), but influenced significantly the lying down time during rumination (147.60 minutes, p<0.001).