VALIDATION OF AN AUTOMATED BEHAVIOR MONITORING COLLAR, AND EVALUATION OF HEAT STRESS ON LACTATING DAIRY COW BEHAVIOR WITH ACCESS TO A FREE CHOICE SOAKER

• Main Author: Grinter, Lori Nicole
• Format: Others
• Published: UKnowledge 2019
• Subjects: precision dairy technology; heat abatement strategy; soaker; Dairy Science
• Online Access: https://uknowledge.uky.edu/animalsci_etds/101; https://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1108&context=animalsci_etds

Precision dairy technologies (PDT) are becoming more accessible and are therefore becoming more common on commercial dairy farms and in dairy research. Prior to any use of PDT, one should understand the precision, accuracy and bias of the device by a validations studies before interpreting the behavior measurements. Thus, the objective of the first section of my thesis is to validate ruminating, feeding and resting measurements of a behavior monitoring collar used in the second section. Precision dairy technology is used in heat stress studies to compare behavior of cows exposed to different heat stress treatments or abatement strategies. Heat stress is an important issue to research because it negatively affects cow behavior, physiology, and therefore production in lactating dairy cows. The objective of the second section is to assess the ability of a free choice soaker to reduce heat stress measured utilizing PDT and compare use of a free choice to a soaker in addition to one of the two treatments 1) no mandatory soakings, or 2) two mandatory soakings.