Cattle develop preferential relationships with other individuals in the herd. These social interactions between individuals have a significant impact on both animal welfare and production. Given the relevance of social behaviour in dairy cattle, scientific studies have focused on understanding social interactions among cattle. These may also be influenced by individual area preferences, particularly when animals are housed in confined spaces. Therefore, investigating the relationship between individual area preferences and social interactions is essential for understanding social behaviour in dairy cattle. Real-time location systems provide the opportunity to monitor individual area preferences and social contacts at the same time. This study aims to assess the impact of dairy cows’ area preferences on their daily social contacts and to determine the potential implications of overlooking individual area preferences in social behaviour studies. The individual position of the lactating cows was automatically collected once per second for two months on a Swedish commercial farm housing dairy cows inside a free-stall barn. The location data of 243 lactating cows was used to construct the social networks and to estimate the similarity of the area utilisation distributions between these individuals. The effect of utilisation distribution similarity in social networks was investigated by applying separable temporal exponential random graph mixed models. The role of different cow characteristics in the similarity of the utilisation distributions was assessed through a linear mixed model. Our analyses stressed the importance of similarity of area preference, parity, kindergarten effect, and filial relatedness in shaping daily social contacts in dairy cattle. The kindergarten effect refers to the effect on cow behaviour of being grouped together in the early stages of their lives. Similarity of area preference was influenced by the kindergarten effect and relatedness by pedigree, which favoured interactions between these individuals. The described approach allowed to disassociate the area preference from the social contacts between cows, providing more accurate results of the importance of the cow’s characteristics on their social behaviour. 

Social interactions between cows play a fundamental role in the daily activities of dairy cattle. Real-time location systems provide on a continuous and automated basis information about the position of individual cows inside barns, offering a valuable opportunity to monitor dyadic social contacts. Understanding dyadic social interactions could be applied to enhance the stability of the social structure promoting animal welfare and to model disease transmission in dairy cattle. This study aimed to identify the effect of different cow characteristics on the likelihood of the formation and persistence of social contacts in dairy cattle. The individual position of the lactating cows was automatically collected once per second for 2 wk, using an ultra-wideband system on a Swedish commercial farm consisting of almost 200 dairy cows inside a freestall barn. Social networks were constructed using the position data of 149 cows with available information on all characteristics during the study period. Social contacts were considered as a binary variable indicating whether a cow pair was within 2.5 m of each other for at least 10 min per day. The role of cow characteristics in social networks was studied by applying separable temporal exponential random graph models. Our results revealed that cows of the same parity interacted more consistently, as well as those born within 7 d of each other or closely related by pedigree. The repeatability of the topological parameters indicated a consistent short-term stability of the individual animal roles within the social network structure. Additional research is required to elucidate the underlying mechanisms governing the long-term evolution of social contacts among dairy cattle and to investigate the relationship between these networks and the transmission of diseases in the dairy cattle population. .

In modern freestall barns where large groups of cows are housed together, the behavior displayed by herd mates can influence the welfare and production of other individuals. Therefore, understanding social interactions in groups of dairy cows is important to enhance herd management and optimize the outcomes of both animal health and welfare in the future. Many factors can affect the number of social contacts in a group. This study aimed to identify which characteristics of a cow are associated with the number of contacts it has with other group members in 2 different functional areas (feeding and resting area) to increase our understanding of the social behavior of dairy cows. Inside 2 herds housed in freestall barns with around 200 lactating cows each, cow positions were recorded with an ultra-wideband real-time location system collecting all cows' positions every second over 2 wk. Using the positioning data of the cows, we quantified the number of contacts between them, assuming that cows spending time in proximity to one another (within a distance of 2.5 m for at least 10 min per day) were interacting socially. We documented in which barn areas these interactions occurred and used linear mixed models to investigate if lactation stage, parity, breed, pregnancy status, estrus, udder health, and claw health affect the number of contacts. We found variation in the number of contacts a cow had between individuals in both functional areas. Cows in later lactation had more contacts in the feeding area than cows in early lactation. Furthermore, in one herd, higher parity cows had fewer contacts in the feeding area than first parity cows, and in the other herd, cows in third parity or higher had more contacts in the resting area. This study indicates that cow characteristics such as parity and days in milk are associated with the number of contacts a cow has daily to its herd mates and provides useful information for further research on social interactions of dairy cows. 

Heat stress in dairy cows can cause an increase in body temperature and respiration rate, and a decreased feed intake leading to reduced production. Dairy cows are better at handling heat when they have access to shade. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the effects of providing shade to high-yielding dairy cattle during the summer in the Swedish climate. Twenty high-yielding Swedish Red dairy cows, held on pasture, were divided into two groups, one with access to shade (S) and one without (NS). Milk production was recorded daily and shade temperature and relative humidity were recorded at 10 min intervals at pasture. A major effect of heat stress was found in cows in early lactation in the NS group. In this group, a high mean temperature two days before and a high THI two days before affected the milk production negatively (p < 0.001), which was the same for the maximum temperature and maximum THI measured on the same day (p < 0.001). Increases in the mean temperature and THI two days before also affected milk production negatively (p < 0.05) for cows in early lactation in the S group, though to a lesser extent. This study suggests that dairy cows in early lactation benefit from access to shade during summer.

Virtual fences have been developed over the last 20 years with focusing enabling an easy and flexible pasture management for goats, sheep, and cattle. The focus on research have been on the animal’s ability to learn to associate an audio cue with a future electrical stimulus and their ability to learn a correct avoiding behaviour in response to the audio cue. No research has focused on what the presence of already trained sheep have on the learning curve of naïve sheep. Thus, the aim of this study was to examine if sheep have a faster learning curve when trained together with sheep that already know how to react to the sound cues in comparison to a group of naïve sheep.

Fifteen, one year old sheep, where divided into two groups of five (group 1) and ten (group 2). Additional five sheep of the same age, that had been trained on virtual fence two months before, was included in group 1. One day 1 the sheep was moved to two rectangular pastures with 40 meters from the back of the fence line to the virtual fence line. On day 3 the virtual fence line was move additional 30 meter to simulate strip pasture. Number of audio and electrical stimuli was collected by the system.

A success rate was calculated as ((#audio cues – #electrical stimuli)/ #audio cues) as a measure of how well the animal have learnt to react correctly to the system. Data was analyses using a mixed model in SAS, with #audio cues, #electrical stimuli and success rate as dependent variables and group, day, and their interaction as fixed effects. Animal was defined as repeated measure.

Day affected average number of sound cues, with an increasing number of sound cues from day 1 to day 5 (2.95 vs 8.25 ± 1.2, P<0.05). Furthermore, Group 1 had a higher success rate than Group 2 (0.94 ± 0.05 vs 0.75 ± 0.04, P<0.05). No other significant effects were found.

The results conclude that sheep learn to use a virtual fence and they get better over time. Additionally, it can be concluded that social transmission occur when sheep are being trained to use a virtual fence together with already trained sheep.

Strategic collaborations between farmers and technology companies to extend the benefits of technical solutions for improved animal production Over the past 50 years, we have seen an increased use of technological solutions in agriculture to monitor animal health, welfare and productivity. The increase in milk production and herd size place great demands on animal health and regular monitoring of all individual animals, to ensure that production is optimal while maintaining good animal welfare. This is very time-consuming, so farmers' interest in digital technology solutions is increasing. This development should facilitate and streamline agriculture. However, many farmers feel that the companies that develop technology do not always have knowledge of the needs and requirements they have for a technical or digital tool. In addition, companies need to collaborate more on sharing data, to avoid, for example, parallel work in several technical solutions. Within the project, we have identified several areas where there is consensus, but also areas where the opinions between farmers and technology companies differ. There was a consensus between farmers and technology companies that personal relationships are a key factor in the industry, and affect, for example, investment decision-making. Furthermore, there was also a consensus that there is a need for actors to be able to meet in some forum to discuss issues such as technology development and data sharing on a regular basis. The parties were considered to have different views on what makes a technology successful and how user dialogue should be handled. One issue where the farmers' opinions differed was the availability outside of working hours, where some felt that it provided increased control and thus a sense of calm, while others considered it as a direct stress factor and a feeling of never leaving the workplace. Several of the technology suppliers expressed that they were interested in developing their collaboration with other technology companies, while others considered it a strength to only work with their own products to ensure the quality of their offering. The project has generated knowledge exchange between actors in the industry. Farmers and technology companies have been given the opportunity to give their views on how to create a dialogue about needs and opportunities for the development of new technical solutions. The results show that all participants see a benefit in increased collaboration, but that the path to get there is not clearly marked out and there is a need for an independent party that initiates collaboration and leads the dialogue.

Position data from real-time indoor positioning systems are increasingly used for studying individual cow behavior and social behavior in dairy herds. However, missing data challenges achieving reliable continuous activity monitoring and behavior studies. This study investigates the pattern of missing data and alternative interpolation methods in ultra-wideband based real-time indoor positioning systems in a free-stall barn. We collected 3 months of position data from a Swedish farm with around 200 cows. Data sampled for 6 days from 69 cows were used in subsequent analyzes to determine the location and duration of missing data. Data from 20 cows with the most reliable tags were selected to compare the effects of four different interpolation methods (previous, linear interpolation, cubic spline data interpolation and modified Akima interpolation). By comparing the observed data with the interpolations of the simulated missing data, the mean error distance varied from around 55 cm, using the previously last observed position, to around 17 cm for modified Akima. Modified Akima interpolation has the lowest error distance for all investigated activities (rest, walking, standing, feeding). Larger error distances were found in areas where the cows walk and turn, such as the corner between feeding and cubicles. Modified Akima interpolation is expected to be useful in the subsequent analyses of data gathered using real-time indoor positioning systems.

The study investigated equine responses to novelty and handling, aiming to reveal whether horse–human relationships reflect criteria of an attachment bond. Twelve adult Standardbreds were subjected to a fear-eliciting test (novel objects presented close to two humans) and a handling test (being led passing novel objects) to study attachment-related behaviours and ease of handling. The tests were performed both before (pre-test) and after (post-test) horses had been trained by the same female handler (10 sessions of 15 min). Horses were assigned to three groups of four, each of which underwent different operant conditioning protocols: negative reinforcement (NR; pressure, release of lead, and whip tap signals) or combined NR with either positive reinforcement using food (PRf) or wither scratching (PRs). Results showed that neither familiarity of the person nor training method had a significant impact on the horses’ behavioural responses in the post-tests. However, horses showed decreased heart rates between pre-and post-tests, which may indicate habituation, an effect of training per se, or that the presence of the familiar trainer served to calm the horses during the challenging situations. There were large individual variations among the horses’ responses and further studies are needed to increase our understanding of horse–human relationships. © 2021 by the authors.

Modern dairy cattle farms are usually equipped with cubicle systems to provide cows with comfortable conditions for lying down and resting. Cows are free to choose any cubicle they want, but in reality, they do not distribute themselves uniformly throughout the barn. There are many factors that affect where a cow lies down, such as hierarchy of a cow, access to resources, cow traffic nearby, etc. In this study, we used real-time location system data from two commercial farms to examine patterns of cubicle occupancy in relation to parity and lactation stage. We summarized cubicle occupancy over several days and compared different areas of the barn. Our findings suggest that, in general, there was a higher occupancy of cubicles close to the feeding areas. High parity cows lay down more frequently in cubicles close to the milking area as opposed to first lactation cows that tend to occupy less busy areas of the barn. The overall conclusion is that cubicle occupancy is not uniform throughout the barn, and patterns related to parity and DIM are seen. This information can be important for future studies on spread of diseases and for management purposes. © 2021 The Authors

The agricultural sector in Sweden needs to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Digitalisation has the potential to contribute to this reduction. The term digitalisation is used to describe a process for digital transformation of products and processes. The purpose is to enable better decisions by using an increased insight through collecting data, and to process the collected data using different smart algorithms. In this report, we present a literature review on research of the potential to reduce climate impact with digitalisation in agriculture. The result of the literature review was applied on a case study, where different scenarios with varying degrees of digitalisation were tested to quantify possible reductions in GHG emissions when introducing digitalisation techniques at a Swedish dairy farm. The results shows that implementation of various digitalisation technologies at a Swedish dairy farm has a potential to reduce the carbon footprint of Swedish milk by 16 %. Precision livestock farming shows the largest potential with an estimated reduction of 14 %, primarily due to feed efficiency and improved animal health and longevity, reducing the total number of animals while maintaining high milk output. It is however important to evaluate the whole system, as changes in the dairy system might impact other farms and food producing systems. This indicates a need for research to further investigate the potential GHG reduction when introducing digitalisation in agriculture.