=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2761/HAICTA_2020_paper75
|storemode=property
|title=Assessment of Performance, Health and Welfare Indicators of Dairy Cows in Relation to their Feeding Management in a Greek Dairy Farm - Abstract
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2761/HAICTA_2020_paper75.pdf
|volume=Vol-2761
|authors=Nektarios Siachos,Evangelos Kiossis,Emmanouil Kalaitzakis,Panagiota Kazana,Konstantinos Themistokleous,Efstratios Souglis,Georgia Koutouzidou,Vasileia Fotiadou,Georgios Arsenos,Nikolaos Panousis
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/haicta/SiachosKKKTSKFA20
}}
==Assessment of Performance, Health and Welfare Indicators of Dairy Cows in Relation to their Feeding Management in a Greek Dairy Farm - Abstract==
<pdf width="1500px">https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2761/HAICTA_2020_paper75.pdf</pdf>
<pre>
      Assessment of Performance, Health and Welfare
   Indicators of Dairy Cows in Relation to their Feeding
      Management in a Greek Dairy Farm - Abstract

    Nektarios Siachos1, Evangelos Kiossis1, Emmanouil Kalaitzakis1, Panagiota
Kazana1, Konstantinos Themistokleous1, Efstratios Souglis2, Georgia Koutouzidou3,
           Vasileia Fotiadou1, Georgios Arsenos1, Nikolaos Panousis4
      1
        Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, School of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of
                                 Thessaloniki, 54124, Greece
      2
        Dairy Department, American Farm School of Thessaloniki, 57001, Thermi, Greece
      3
       Department of Applied Informatics, University of Macedonia, 54636, Thessaloniki,
                                           Greece
      4
        Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, School of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of
                  Thessaloniki, 54124, Greece; e-mail: panousis@vet.auth.gr



Summary

   The objective was to assess performance, health and welfare indicators of dairy
cows in relation to their nutritional management. A dairy farm with 120 milking
Holsteins was monitored for one year. Cows were housed in free stalls as one group
and fed a total mixed ration (TMR) offered once daily (after morning milking). The
farm was visited on a monthly basis by the same team of veterinarians. During each
visit individual cows were assessed for their body condition score (BCS: 1 to 5 scale
by increments of 0.25), locomotion score (LS: 1 to 4 scale) and manure consistency
score (MCS: 1 to 5 scale). Moreover, the proportion of cows lying down and
ruminating 2 h after feeding as well as the average number of chewing per cud were
also assessed. Manure samples (one for every 10 cows), representative of all MCS
recorded, were sieved to assess the presence of undigested fibers and grains. Moreover,
a representative fresh TMR sample was collected immediately after feeding and its
chemical composition was assessed on-farm using a portable NIR analyzer
(AgriNIRTM, Dinamica Generale, Italy). The particle size of the TMR was evaluated
with Penn State Particle Separator (PSPS) using a 1.18 mm screen. Percentages of
particles retained on each sieve and the average particle size (APS) were calculated.
The peNDF1.18 percentage was calculated as the product of the cumulative percentage
of particles retained above the 1.18 mm screen multiplied by the NDF content of TMR.
Monthly records of bulk tank and individual milk yield (MY), fat (F), protein (P) and
lactose (L) content were available for all cows. Cows with F:P ratio <1.0 were
considered at-risk for subacute ruminal acidosis (SARA) and those with F:P ratio >1.4
in the first 30 days in milk at-risk for subclinical ketosis (SCK). Non-parametric
pairwise correlation coefficients (spearman’s ρ) were calculated for all parameters.
There was a remarkable inconsistency of TMR chemical composition and forage
particle size. The percentage of particles retained on the upper sieve of PSPS ranged




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from 3.8% to 24.2% during the study. Constantly, about 2/3 of screened manure
samples had >5 undigested grains. The TMR crude protein content was relatively low
(range: 13.2% - 15.3%) considering herd milk production levels. The percentage of
ruminating cows was constantly low (range: 32% - 54%) and the average number of
chewing per cud ranged from 56 to 71. ADF and NDF were within acceptable levels
(ADF: 17.7% - 23.8%; NDF: 30.5% - 38.7%). Individual MY (range: 26.91 L – 32.26
L) was negatively associated (ρ= -0.806, P=0.005) with the percentage of cows at-risk
for SARA (range: 6.5% – 25.5%) and with the percentage of lame cows (ρ= -0.721,
P=0.019). The latter was positively associated (ρ= 0.727, P=0.011) with the percentage
of thin cows (BCS< 2.5). The percentage of severely lame cows (LS= 4) was positively
associated (ρ= 0.673, P=0.023) with the TMR starch content (range: 21.8% – 28.4%).
The percentage of cows ruminating was negatively associated (ρ= -0.688, P=0.019)
with APS (range: 4.9 mm – 7.7 mm) of TMR. TMR inconsistency in dietary starch
content and particle size, favoring feed sorting by cows, were the most important
findings. Hence, it was concluded that ration re-formulation considering protein-
energy balance and lowering starch levels, together with appropriate TMR mixing and
routine hoof-trimming procedure should prioritized in planning of corrective
interventions in the studied farm.

       Keywords: Cattle; performance; health; nutritional management.


Acknowledgements. This research has been co-financed by the European Regional
Development Fund of the European Union and Greek national funds through the
Operational Program Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, under the
call RESEARCH – CREATE – INNOVATE (project code: T1EDK-03989).




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