Are cows more likely to lie down the longer they stand? Bert J. Tolkamp *, Marie J. Haskell, Fritha M. Langford, David J. Roberts, Colin A. Morgan Sustainable Livestock Systems and Animal Health Groups, SAC Research, King’s Buildings, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JG, Scotland, UK 1. Introduction There is increasing interest in analysis of the lying, standing and/or walking behaviour of farm animals (e.g. Fregonesi and Leaver, 2001; Tre ´ nel et al., 2009). Changes in such behaviour have been associated with changes in the reproductive and health status of animals (e.g. Huzzey et al., 2005; Galindo and Broom, 2000) and automatic recording of locomotory behaviour has been used for oestrus detection (e.g. Van Vliet and van Eerdenburgh, 1996; Firk et al., 2002) and early diagnosis of lameness (e.g. O’Callaghan et al., 2003; Mazrier et al., 2006). Effects on lying behaviour due to different housing and bedding conditions have been measured to identify the most comfortable systems (e.g. Tucker and Weary, 2004; Drissler et al., 2005). In addition, there is some animal welfare concern regarding the effects of management changes, such as increased milking frequency, on the availability of sufficient resting opportunities (O ¨ sterman and Redbo, 2001; Munksgaard et al., 2005). Applied Animal Behaviour Science 124 (2010) 1–10 ARTICLE INFO Article history: Accepted 8 February 2010 Keywords: Dairy cow Beef cow Lying Standing Bout criteria ABSTRACT Information on (changes in) standing and lying behaviour of cows can be used for oestrus detection, early diagnosis of disorders and to evaluate welfare consequences of changes in housing and management. Data sets on lying and standing behaviour were collected from cows with IceTag TM sensors fitted to the leg. Data were obtained with 10 late-pregnant indoor-housed beef cows (Exp. 1), 19 out-wintered beef cows (Exp. 2) and 44 housed lactating dairy cows that were milked three times daily (Exp. 3). During part of Exp. 1 video footage was recorded to validate the sensor records. Data were analysed with the aims of estimating objective lying and standing bout criteria and to test two hypotheses. These hypotheses were that (i) the probability of cows standing up would increase with the length of time the animal had been lying down and (ii) the probability of cows lying down would increase with the length of time the animal had been standing. A total of 10,814, 39,089 and 9405 lying episodes were recorded by the sensors in Exp. 1–3, respectively. On the basis of log–survivorship plots, frequency distributions of (log-transformed) lying episode lengths and analysis of the correspondence between recorded lying episodes and video footage of lying behaviour, a minimum lying bout criterion of 4 min was indicated. Application of this criterion reduced the number of lying episodes by between 62% and 88% in the three experiments, even though this had only minor effects on total estimated lying and standing time (changes between 0.5% and 3.2%). Out-wintered beef cows tended to have fewer but longer lying bouts than the other groups and dairy cows had the shortest total lying time. (11.6, 10.5 and 10.2 h/day in Exp. 1–3, respectively). The probability of cows standing up within the next 15 min increased (P < 0.001) with lying time in all experiments, which was consistent with the first hypothesis. The probability of cows lying down within the next 15 min did not significantly increase with standing time. This lack of change in probability was not caused by pooling of data across day and night or across cows with different behavioural strategies. Our second hypothesis was, therefore, refuted because cows were not more likely to lie down the longer they had been standing. ß 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 131 5353200; fax: +44 131 5353121. E-mail address: Bert.Tolkamp@sac.ac.uk (B.J. Tolkamp). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Applied Animal Behaviour Science journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/applanim 0168-1591/$ – see front matter ß 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2010.02.004