Borealis
Foris, Borbala;
Mangilli, Livia;
Van Os, Jennifer;
von Keyserlingk, M.A.G;
Fregonesi, Jose;
Weary, D.M
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2021-09-14
How lying stalls in barns housing dairy cows become contaminated with feces is not well understood. We investigated the influence of cow-cow differences and overstocking on the likelihood that cows defecate while lying down in the stall. Cows in later stages of pregnancy were less likely to perform this behavior, with no effect of weight, parity, age, or lameness. Also, the more time cows spent lying down the greater the likelihood of the behavior, but the cow to stall ratio had no effect.