Researchers at the University of Guelph are looking at the link between a cow’s personality and her milking ability. Dr. Trevor DeVries, a professor in the Department of Animal Biosciences at Ontario Agricultural College (OAC), has conducted a number of studies on the various character and temperament traits of dairy cows and how they affect their behavior and production in automated milking systems (AMS). The significance of this study rests in knowing how various personalities affect milk output in cows.
To assess personality in a cow, researchers transfer them to a new enclosure and study their behavior for 10 minutes. They next introduce an item that the cow has never seen before, such as a yoga ball, and observe their behavior for another 10 minutes. Finally, they bring a new individual inside the pen for an extra ten minutes. The time spent on each kind of behavior is divided by the overall length of the test, yielding a percentage of test time.
A Principal Component Analysis is used to identify cows with similar habits and group them together. A recent research by Dr. DeVries and PhD student Anna Schwanke found that cows with high boldness and activeness adapted better to the AMS soon after calving, but cows with low activeness and high boldness fared better in terms of milk supply and milking activity in early lactation.
Dr. DeVries and MSc student Sabina Czachor also investigated the relationships between dams’ personality qualities and their offspring, finding favorable links between active dams and exploratory-active heifers or active dams and brave heifers. This information might be utilized to choose a certain kind of cow or to adjust management to adapt or shape personalities.
