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Dairy cattle kept in barns with a free-stall system have contact with the structural elements of the stalls in the lying area. As a result of the cattle entering the lying stall, lying down, and standing up, shiny surfaces appear on the neck rails and partitions. These shiny surfaces can be a source of information about the activity of the animals in the lying stalls over a long period of time. This case study aimed to assess the diversity of shiny spots on the neck rails and partitions in the lying area of barns with a free-stall system. The length of the shiny surfaces and their locations on the neck rails and partitions were measured in three barns (on one dairy farm) containing a total of 512 lying stalls. The differences in the lengths of the shiny surfaces on the left and right partitions were assessed, and their locations on the partitions and neck rail were compared. Identifying the interactions between animals and metal elements of the lying stalls could contribute to improving the welfare of dairy cattle.

Animal welfare studies are among the key areas of research contributing to the development of knowledge in the life sciences [...].Animal welfare studies are among the key areas of research contributing to the development of knowledge in the life sciences [...].

Equipping a farm with a milking parlor requires moving groups of cows from their pens to the part of the barn where milking takes place. The task of moving cows, carried out two or three times each day, shows links to the lying area of the barn. When the cows are taken from the pen to the milking parlor, some of them may be lying down, and this lying down must be interrupted. The forced standing up of cows can be considered in terms of their welfare. The aim of the study was to examine the number of cows lying in the stalls at the time of opening the exit gates in the pens in order to take the cows to the milking parlor. The study covered four pens, each with 12 cows. The behavior of the cows in the pens before morning and afternoon milking was recorded over 26 days. In the analysis, the dependent variable was the number of lying cows, and the independent variables were the time of milking and the level of sand in the lying stalls. The results of the study showed the significance of differences in the number of lying cows for stalls with a low and high level of sand, both in the case of morning and afternoon milking. Differences in the number of lying cows were also found when comparing the time before morning and afternoon milking. To compare the tendency of individual cows to lie down before going to milking, an index of forced standing up was proposed. The research conducted showed differences in the behavior of cows before leaving the pen to the milking parlor. The stage to reduce the forced standing up of cows is to equip the farm with an automatic milking system (AMS) instead of using a milking parlor. In barns with AMS, cows have full freedom to get up and approach the milking stall. The results of the observations are thus an additional argument confirming the benefits of using an automatic milking system, considered in terms of the welfare of dairy cows, regarding their lying down and getting up.

This study tested the effect of neck rails equipped with and without foam on stall usage and preference by dairy cows. The hypothesis of the experiment, that cows prefer lying stalls with foam in comparison to stalls without foam, was rejected. There was no significant difference (p > 0.05) in lying time and time spent standing with two and four hooves in the lying stalls between the two treatment groups. Considering the time of individual stall occupation and the distribution of stalls in the pen, cows showed a preference for one of two lying stall rows. Analysis of variance showed a significant difference (p < 0.001) between the time of stall occupation for the two different rows in the pen, including the time spent lying and the time spent standing with two and four hooves in the stall. Lying time per stall in the preferred row (near the feeding alley) in comparison with the alternative row was 580 ± 101 min·d−1·stall−1 versus 50 ± 28 min·d−1·stall−1, respectively. These results can support a design process for new barns with a free-stall housing system for dairy cattle.

Research on barn technology, technical equipment, and related cattle welfare indicates a growing emphasis on assessing sources of animal comfort as the subject of scientific research. In practice, dairy cattle housing conditions are also assessed directly by farmers responsible for the animals’ living conditions in barns; therefore, it is worthwhile to ask farmers about their approaches to improving the housing and comfort of dairy cattle in barns. The aim of this study was to evaluate non-standard technical solutions implemented by farmers in tie-stall and loose-housing barns; the research study design included visits to and observations at 40 dairy farms, selected purposively based on prior knowledge or expectations regarding equipping barns with non-standard technical solutions. An index of non-standard solutions in livestock buildings (Sns) was proposed based on the ratio of the number of non-standard solutions in a barn to usable floor space in the barn. The Sns index was higher in tie-stall barns (0.0012–0.0192) than in loose-housing barns (0.00–0.0023). Non-standard technical solutions implemented by farmers were most common in barns with tie-stall housing systems, especially in feeding areas. Knowledge about non-standard technical solutions in barns can be used in practice by various stakeholders as inspiration for barn retrofits, training materials for advisors, or a starting point for targeted welfare research.

Surveys are important tools for collecting knowledge, including student knowledge, and assessing their opinions and behavior. Survey results inspire information processing and selection of a processing method for further knowledge management. In this study, an improved approach to presenting survey results was developed, utilizing a Likert scale. In the survey, 20 students answered 10 questions (issues) that examined their opinions on the impact of modern technical equipment on dairy production assessment. The feature significance index (FSI) was utilized to inform the development of the survey study results. The FSI is the ratio of the percentage share of the highest to the lowest ratings on a Likert scale. In the case of four issues, none of the students indicated the options had very little impact and little impact. Therefore, the FSI could not be calculated, so a modified version was proposed. After ranking the issues in the survey based on the FSI, the difference in FSI between the best-rated and worst-rated issues was more than 13 times. This difference was less than two times in the modified version of the FSI. A larger difference allows for a more comprehensive interpretation of the survey results. The study confirmed that the small number of survey participants is a key limitation in developing the survey results.

Dairy production on farms is based on properly selected technologies implemented in various areas of the barn and outside the livestock buildings. These technologies are subject to assessment, for example, to determine the possibilities of their further improvement in the given production conditions of the farm. When assessing dairy production technology on a farm, human interests are taken into account, including workload, time and access to modern tools supporting the control of production processes. The aim of this review is to identify and discuss factors in dairy production technologies that may affect the welfare of dairy cattle. The considerations indicate that in the technologies of cow feeding, watering and housing, the priority is to improve the technology in terms of ensuring the comfort of animals using feed, water and a place to rest. However, in the case of the assessment of milking automation, the key importance of increasing human comfort was indicated, taking into account the comfort of cows, which is an additional factor justifying the implementation of technical progress in milking. The assessment of various dairy production technologies on farms is an excellent opportunity to develop discussions on the place of dairy cattle welfare in the sustainable development of farms and the priorities set for improving dairy production.

A crucial area of research in farm dairy production involves evaluating and comparing different milking systems. By comparing a wide range of milking equipment used in dairy farms, it is possible to identify trends in changes in milking efficiency with data, including those characterizing cow herds. In this research study, five generations of milking (GI-GV) were distinguished, ranging from hand milking (GI generation) to automated milking, AMS (GV generation), according to the applied methodology. Twenty-eight farms representing a different generation of mechanical milking (GII-GV) were selected for the study. Data on the size of the cow herd, annual milk yield per cow, number of milking clusters, number of milkers, and daily milking time were collected from these farms. Data from the dairy farms included in the study allowed us to find an increase in the annual milk yield of cows in farms with increasingly higher milking generations (GII-GV), from 5211 to 8977 L per cow per year. Compared to the lowest milking generation (GII), the highest milking generation (GV) was distinguished by 11 times more milking per cluster per day, 14 times more milk milked by the cluster per year, and nine times more human labor efficiency. The research study provides the basis for assessing the effectiveness of implementing technical and technological progress in cow milking.

Dairy cattle housing systems are the subject of numerous studies, in which a strong emphasis is placed on the comparison of animal welfare, animal behavior, production indicators and labor inputs. Dairy cattle housing systems are linked to specific livestock buildings, which is a prerequisite for undertaking studies comparing barns and their technical equipment. The aim of the study was to compare barns with two types of housing systems, i.e., tie-stall and freestall, including the identification of technical wear in various areas used by animals. This objective was linked to the assessment of animal health problems in livestock facilities. The research covered 38 dairy farms, 19 of which kept cows in the tie-stall system and 19 in the freestall system. The barns in these farms were examined for technical damage and construction errors, assessed in four areas: lying, feeding, milking and social. The research results confirmed significant differences in the degree of damage to technical equipment in individual areas of barns and between barns with tie-stall and freestall housing systems. The conclusions indicate the need to link the degradation of barns and their technical equipment, as well as design errors with the evaluation of dairy cattle welfare in future studies.

The involvement of people and technical devices is a characteristic feature of technological processes in agriculture. Human access to modernized and more efficient technical equipment determines the differentiation of the proportions of the contributions of human labor and technical equipment to the implementation of production technology on farms. Taking into account the data on manual and machine work inputs, the methodology of determining the technological index level (TL) was presented. The aim of the present study was to present the scope of use of the technological index level to assess the effects of technological progress in the dairy production system, with particular emphasis on cow milking. For the value range of the technological index level (0–100%), changes in the milkman’s work efficiency were presented based on research carried out on farms equipped with milking equipment at different levels of technical advancement. Moreover, the course of changes in electricity and water consumption per liter of milk was determined in association with the technological index level. The issue of simultaneous implementation of various forms of progress was developed based on the example of milking cows with a milking robot. Five categories (ranges) of cows’ milk yield were distinguished and compared with the current yields of cows in the European Union. On this basis, a discussion was initiated on the factors that facilitate and limit the implementation of technical and technological progress in dairy production.