Attitudes of western Canadian dairy farmers toward technology.

Dairy farms have become more reliant on technology. The overall aim of this study was to better understand how dairy farmers view technology and its effects on animal care, including their views on the prospect of integrating gene-editing technology in the future. Virtual-semistructured interviews were conducted with dairy farmers (n = 11) from British Columbia and Alberta. To facilitate discussion, the participants were asked to develop and discuss a timeline describing when and why various technologies were adopted on their farm. Although farmers defined technology broadly and affecting multiple aspects of farm management, this paper focuses on their views regarding how technology can affect animal care. Following thematic analysis of the data, the following 3 themes emerged: (1) the changing role of the farmer (including intergenerational considerations and learning new technology), (2) the effect of technology on the cow and her relationship with the farmer and, (3) technology as the future of the farm. The discussions also highlight the concerns that some farmers have regarding challenges associated with reduced human-animal interactions and effective use of the large amounts of data that are collected through technology. We also specifically asked the participants their views about gene editing as a potential future technology. Most of the participants did not specifically address their views on gene editing, but they spoke about the effect on genetic technologies more generally, often making references to genomic testing. However, some questioned how this technology may affect farmers more generally and spoke about how it could affect human-animal relationships. These results illustrate differences among farmers in the way they view technology and how this can affect the dairy cattle they care for.

Redefining dominance calculation: Increased competition flattens the dominance hierarchy in dairy cows.

Dominance hierarchies are known for mitigating conflicts and guiding priority of access to limited resources in gregarious animals. The dominance hierarchy of dairy cows is typically investigated using agonistic interactions, often monitored at the feed bunk right after fresh feed delivery when competition is high resulting in frequent interactions. Yet, the outcome of agonistic interactions during times of high competition may be more influenced by cows' high valuation of fresh feed than their intrinsic attributes, such that the dominance hierarchy constructed using agonistic interactions under high versus low competition times might differ. We tested how the structure of the dominance hierarchy changes in relation to different levels of competition in a dynamic group of 48 lactating dairy cows over 10 mo, with 6 cows exchanged every 16 d for a total of 159 cows. Using a validated algorithm we continuously detected the actor and reactor of replacement behaviors in 30 feed bins as cows competed for feed. We also calculated the percentage of occupied feed bins to characterize competition at the moment of each replacement. These data were combined to create hierarchies using Elo ratings, separately for 25 occupancy levels ranging from 13% to 100%. For each 1% rise in feeder occupancy, hierarchy steepness fell by 2.41 × 10-3 ± 9.71 × 10-5 (SE), and the percentage of dyads where both cows replaced each other rose by 0.13% ± 0.01%. At the highest feeder occupancy level in comparison to the lowest one, we observed 7.57% more dyads in which the dominant individual (those won more interactions at the lowest feeder occupancy) started to lose proportionally more. The magnitude of decrease in the winning rate of the dominant individual in those dyads also got amplified by 1.06 × 10-3% ± 1.37 × 10-4% (SE) for each 1% increase in feeder occupancy. These findings illustrate how inferred hierarchies vary with competition, with high competition flattening the hierarchy due to increased success of subordinate animals. We suggest that during heightened competition, increased valuation of resources can affect competitive success more than the individual's intrinsic dominance attributes. We recommend against calculating dominance hierarchies based on agonistic interactions during periods of high competition alone, and more generally urge researchers to differentiate agonistic interactions based on context when constructing dominance hierarchies.

Swine industry perspectives on the future of pig farming.

Understanding the views of those working along the value chain reliant on livestock is an important step in supporting the transition towards more sustainable farming systems. We recruited 31 delegates attending the Pig Welfare Symposium held in the United States to participate in one of six focus group discussions on the future of pig farming. Each of these six group discussions was subjected to a thematic analysis that identified four themes: (1) technical changes on the farm; (2) farm and industry culture; (3) the farm-public interface; and (4) sustainability. The results of this study illustrate the complexity and diversity of views of those working along the associated value chain within the swine industry. Participants spent the majority of their time discussing current challenges, including technical challenges on the farm and public perception of pig farms. Participants were more hesitant to discuss future issues, but did engage on the broader issue of sustainability, focusing upon economic and environmental aspects.

Hunger affects cognitive performance of dairy calves.

Hunger remains a significant animal welfare concern as restricted feeding practices are common on farms. Studies to date have focused on negative effects on health and productivity but little research has addressed the feeling of hunger, mostly due to methodological difficulties in assessing animals' subjective experiences. Here, we explored the use of a cognitive approach to disentangle motivational hunger (a normal state that is of limited welfare concern) from distressful hunger (a state associated with intense negative emotions). Cognitive performance in a foraging task is expected to follow an inverted U relationship with hunger levels, providing an opportunity to make inferences about different hunger states. We assessed the effect of milk restriction on calf cognition in two experiments using a modified hole-board test. Experiment 1 showed that reducing milk allowance from 12 to 6 l d-1 impaired all measures of cognitive performance. Experiment 2 showed that the same type of feed restriction also disrupted calves' capacity to re-learn. We conclude that hunger associated with reduced milk allowance can disrupt cognitive performance of dairy calves, a result consistent with the experience of distressful hunger.

Invited review: Social dominance in dairy cattle: A critical review with guidelines for future research.

Cattle are gregarious animals able to form social relationships. Dominance is one of the most widely studied social behaviors of dairy cattle, especially cows confined indoors. However, much of the past dairy cattle research has used an unstandardized approach, differing in definitions and conceptual understanding of dominance, as well as their methods of data collection and dominance calculation. The first of the 3 aims of this review is to evaluate how dominance relates to the social behavior of housed dairy cows. Cows engage in agonistic interactions to establish and reinforce dominance relationships. An individual's dominance is influenced by intrinsic characteristics, such as personality, and extrinsic factors, including group composition. When competing for resources, agonistic interactions can also be influenced by individual motivational differences, such as hunger, which may diminish the role of dominance in regulating competition. Our second aim is to critically review methods used to assess dominance in cows. This includes discussions on the effect of time and location of data collection on measured values as well as the viability and limitations of some dominance calculation methods. We propose that different methodologies lend themselves to different types of research questions. For example, the use of data stream-based methods that consider the sequence of interactions are useful for estimating how dominance fluctuates with changing conditions and can be used in a dynamically changing group. In contrast, matrix-based methods that aggregate social interactions may be best for identifying the social position of individuals and understanding how social characteristics influence the attributes of a stable hierarchy. Our third aim is to discuss the future of dominance research. We use a flowchart to illustrate guidelines for a more standardized approach to measuring dominance in cattle. We also identify areas in need of further conceptual clarification, suggest practical applications of dominance when managing dairy cattle, and discuss some limitations of dominance research.

The effects of pain following disbudding on calf memory.

Studies have found evidence of pain in the hours following hot-iron disbudding, but little is known about longer-lasting pain following this procedure. Work on humans and rats has shown that lasting pain can have negative effects on the formation and recall of memories. The objective of this study was to assess whether lasting pain following disbudding affects learning and memory in calves. A modified hole-board apparatus was used to assess how quickly calves were able to learn the locations of 4 bottles containing milk dispersed among 11 locations with empty bottles. At 14 d of age and after 6 d of training on this task, calves (n = 30) were randomly assigned to 3 treatments: disbudding with analgesic on the day of the procedure, disbudding with analgesic throughout the study, and sham disbudding. All calves were sedated, given a lidocaine cornual local block and a single injection of an nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Starting on the day after their disbudding treatment, calves were tested daily using the modified hole-board apparatus. After 12 d of testing, the locations of the 4 milk-containing bottles were switched, and calves then relearned the locations of the rewarded bottles over the next 6 daily test sessions. We found general working memory (i.e., short-term memory) and reference memory (i.e., long-term memory) increased over the 12 d of testing, declined when locations were switched on d 13, and then again increased over the final 6 d of testing. We did not find an effect of treatment on any measure, perhaps because there was no lasting pain or because effects were too minor to detect using this test of spatial memory.

Graduate Student Literature Review: Sociability, fearfulness, and coping style-Impacts on individual variation in the social behavior of dairy cattle.

Dairy cattle typically live in groups, but individuals within these groups vary in their social behavior. An improved understanding of factors affecting the expression of social behavior may help refine management practices on farms to better accommodate the needs of all individuals within the herd. In this paper, we review (1) some examples of how social behavior is expressed in cattle, (2) commonly assessed personality traits in this species (i.e., sociability and fearfulness) as well as coping style, and (3) how these can affect the expression of social behavior of dairy cattle and in turn their welfare. We also identify understudied social behaviors that personality might influence (social learning, social stress, and social buffering of negative emotions), and that could inform how to improve the welfare of intensively housed dairy cattle.

Crowd sourcing remote comparative lameness assessments for dairy cattle.

Lameness assessments are rarely conducted routinely on dairy farms and when completed typically underestimate lameness prevalence, hampering early diagnosis and treatment. A well-known feature of many perceptual tasks is that relative assessments are more accurate than absolute assessments, suggesting that creating methods that allow for the relative scoring of which cow is more lame will allow for reliable lameness assessments. Here we developed and tested a remote comparative lameness assessment method: we recruited nonexperienced crowd workers via an online platform and asked them to watch 2 videos side-by-side, each showing a cow walking, and to identify which cow was more lame and by how much (on a scale of -3 to 3). We created 11 tasks, each with 10 video pairs for comparison, and recruited 50 workers per task. All tasks were also completed by 5 experienced cattle lameness assessors. We evaluated data filtering and clustering methods based on worker responses and determined the agreement among workers, among experienced assessors, and between these groups. A moderate to high interobserver reliability was observed (intraclass correlation coefficient, ICC = 0.46 to 0.77) for crowd workers and agreement was high among the experienced assessors (ICC = 0.87). Average crowd-worker responses showed excellent agreement with the average of experienced assessor responses (ICC = 0.89 to 0.91), regardless of data processing method. To investigate if we could use fewer workers per task while still retaining high agreement with experienced assessors, we randomly subsampled 2 to 43 (1 less than the minimum number of workers retained per task after data cleaning) workers from each task. The agreement with experienced assessors increased substantially as we increased the number of workers from 2 to 10, but little increase was observed after 10 or more workers were used (ICC > 0.80). The proposed method provides a fast and cost-effective way to assess lameness in commercial herds. In addition, this method allows for large-scale data collection useful for training computer vision algorithms that could be used to automate lameness assessments on farm.

Perceptions of laboratory animal veterinarians regarding institutional transparency.

Institutions using animals for research typically have a veterinarian who is responsible for the veterinary care programme and compliance with regulatory obligations. These veterinarians operate at the interface between the institution's animal research programme and senior management. Veterinarians have strong public trust and are well positioned to share information about animals used for scientific purposes, but their perspectives on sharing information with the public are not well documented and their perceptions of transparency may influence how institutional policies are developed and applied. The objective of our study was to analyse the perceptions of institutional transparency among laboratory animal veterinarians working at different universities. Semi-structured, open-ended interviews were used to describe perceptions of 16 attending veterinarians relating to animal research transparency. Three themes were drawn from the interviews: (i) reflections on transparency; (ii) reflections on culture; and (iii) reflections on self. Veterinarians reflected on their personal priorities regarding transparency and when combined with barriers to change within the institutions, sometimes resulted in reported inaction. For example, sometimes veterinarians chose not to pursue available opportunities for change at seemingly willing universities, while others had their initiatives for change blocked by more senior administrators. The sharing of information regarding the animals used for scientific purposes varied in how it was conceptualised by attending veterinarians: (i) true transparency; communication of information for the sake of openness; (ii) strategic transparency; attempt to educate people about animal research because then they will support it; (iii) agenda-driven transparency; selective release of positive stories to direct public opinion; and (iv) fearful non-transparency; not communicating any information for fear of negative opposition to animal research. Transparency was not perceived as an institutional priority by many of the veterinarians and a cohesive action plan to increase transparency that involves multiple universities was identified as a promising avenue to overcome existing barriers.

Public attitudes toward the use of technology to create new types of animals and animal products.

Philosophers have used thought experiments to examine contentious examples of genetic modification. We hypothesised that these examples would prove useful in provoking responses from lay participants concerning technological interventions used to address welfare concerns. We asked 747 US and Canadian citizens to respond to two scenarios based on these thought experiments: genetically modifying chickens to produce blind progeny that are less likely to engage in feather-pecking (BC); and genetically modifying animals to create progeny that do not experience any subjective state (i.e. incapable of experiencing pain or fear; IA). For contrast, we assessed a third scenario that also resulted in the production of animal protein with no risk of suffering but did not involve genetically modifying animals: the development of cultured meat (CM). Participants indicated on a seven-point scale how acceptable they considered the technology (1 = very wrong to do; 7 = very right to do), and provided a text-based, open-ended explanation of their response. The creation of cultured meat was judged more acceptable than the creation of blind chickens and insentient animals. Qualitative responses indicated that some participants accepted the constraints imposed by the thought experiment, for example, by accepting perceived harms of the technology to achieve perceived benefits in reducing animal suffering. Others expressed discomfort with such trade-offs, advocating for other approaches to reducing harm. We conclude that people vary in their acceptance of interventions within existing systems, with some calling for transformational change.

How might the public contribute to the discussion on cattle welfare? Perspectives of veterinarians and animal scientists.

Veterinarians and animal scientists can provide leadership on issues relevant to farm animal welfare, but perceptions of these stakeholders regarding societal expectations for welfare are underexplored. This study involved five focus groups of veterinarians and animal scientists (n = 50 in total), recruited at a European meeting focused on cattle welfare. Participants were invited to discuss topics related to cattle welfare and were prompted with questions to elicit their perspectives of public concerns and how the participants felt public input should be included when developing solutions. Discussions were moderated by trained facilitators, audio-recorded and transcribed, and transcripts analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Ultimately, four primary themes were developed: (1) The public as concerned; (2) The public as ignorant; (3) The public as needing education; and (4) The public as helper or hindrance. Groups identified specific farming practices viewed as concerning to the public, including lack of pasture access, behavioural restriction, and painful procedures. Discussions about these concerns and the role of the public were often framed around the assumption that the public was ignorant about farming, and that this ignorance needed to be rectified through education. Participants were generally ambivalent in their beliefs regarding public contributions to solutions for farm animal welfare but suggested that consumers should pay more for products to help shoulder any costs of welfare improvements.

Assessing cognitive performance in dairy calves using a modified hole-board test.

The hole-board test has been used to assess working and reference memory in a variety of species, but not in cattle. We developed and applied a modified hole-board test for dairy calves. Fifteen bottles were evenly spaced along three walls of a test arena; 11 of these were empty and 4 were 'baited' with milk. Calves were exposed daily (over an 11-day learning period) to the test arena with the location of the baited bottles held constant; the location of the 4 baited bottles was then changed and calves were re-trained on these new locations (over a 7-day re-learning period). Working memory (no. of revisits to the baited set), general working memory (no. of revisits to the whole set), and reference memory (avoidance of non-baited bottles) were assessed daily. Performance significantly improved during the learning period for reference and general working memory. Working memory tended to improve, albeit non-significantly. The change in bottle location initially reduced all performance measures, but these subsequently improved during the 7-day re-learning period. These results indicate that a modified hole-board test can be used to assess calf cognition, and thus may be helpful in future research designed to investigate the effects of housing and rearing conditions on cognition.

Invited review: Risk factors for transition period disease in intensive grazing and housed dairy cattle.

Transition period (±3 wk around calving) diseases are prevalent in dairy systems. In this review we describe the physiological and behavioral changes experienced by cows during the transition period and during the dry period leading up to this. Our narrative review examines risk factors associated with these diseases in zero-grazing and grazing systems. The available research indicates that cows in these 2 systems experience similar incidences of transition diseases, and that low or high BCS and lameness are key manageable risks associated with both systems. Other cow- and herd-level risk factors identified in this review are parity, breed, and seasonal variability in disease incidence. Some risks appear to arise earlier in the dry period, outside what is normally considered the transition period; we recommend that future studies of transition period diseases should consider the entire dry period. We also encourage new work on measuring the effect of intervention strategies during late lactation on transition period diseases.

Effects of free-choice pasture access on lameness recovery and behavior of lame dairy cattle.

Lameness is a common condition in dairy cows. Free-choice access to pasture may benefit lame cows by providing a softer and more comfortable lying and standing surface; however, the effects of this system on lameness have not yet been explored. We evaluated whether a 7-wk period of free-choice pasture access would improve lameness recovery and affect the lying behavior of lame dairy cows. Lactating Holstein cows, all clinically lame upon enrollment and housed inside a freestall barn, were pseudo-randomly allocated to 1 of 2 treatments (balancing for gait score, parity, and previous lameness history): free-choice access to pasture (n = 27; pasture) or indoor housing only (n = 27; indoor). Cows were gait scored weekly by an observer blind to treatment, using a 5-point numerical rating system (NRS 1 = sound, NRS 5 = severely lame), and hoof inspections were performed by professional trimmers at the start and end of the 7-wk period. Lying behavior was assessed using accelerometers. Cows were categorized as either having a sound period (NRS <2 over 2 consecutive weeks) or remaining lame. Cows spent, on average, 14.8 ± 10.0% (mean ± SD) of their total time on pasture, with much of this time spent outside at night. Over the 7-wk period, 42% of cows had at least one sound period (pasture: 55.6%, indoor: 26.9%), but this was more likely for cows with pasture access (odds ratio = 4.1; 95% confidence interval: 1.1-14.6%). Pasture cows also spent more total weeks sound compared with indoor cows (2.0 ± 0.34 vs. 0.81 ± 0.35 wk). Cows with pasture access lay down for less overall time than indoor cows (13.9 ± 0.29 vs. 12.7 ± 0.28 h/d) and spent more time standing on pasture (74%) than when indoors (47%). These results suggest that lame dairy cows will use pasture when provided with free-choice access, primarily at night, and that access to pasture aids in lameness recovery. We encourage future research to investigate longer-term effects on the recovery of hoof lesions and reoccurrence of lameness cases.

Veterinarian perceptions on the care of surplus dairy calves.

Both male and female calves that are not required in the dairy herd sometimes receive inadequate care on dairy farms. Veterinarians work with farmers to improve animal care, and farmers often view veterinarians as trusted advisors; however, little is known about the attitudes of veterinarians on surplus calves. This study investigated the perspectives of Canadian cattle veterinarians on the care and management of surplus calves, as well as how they view their role in improving care. We conducted 10 focus groups with a total of 45 veterinarians from 8 provinces across Canada. Recorded audio files were transcribed, anonymized, and coded using thematic analysis. We found that veterinarians approached surplus calf management issues from a wide lens, with 2 major themes emerging: (1) problematic aspects of surplus calf management, including colostrum management, transportation, and euthanasia, and suggested management and structural solutions, including ways to improve the economic value of these calves, and (2) the veterinarian's role in advising dairy farmers on the care of surplus calves, including on technical issues, and more broadly working with farmers to better address public concerns. We conclude that veterinarians are concerned about the care of surplus calves on dairy farms and believe that they have an important role in developing solutions together with their farmer clientele.

Preweaning dairy calves' preferences for outdoor access.

Adult dairy cattle show a preference for outdoor spaces during summer nights, but little is known about such preferences for dairy calves. Our aim was to determine the preferences of dairy calves for outdoor access during their first 11 wk of age in summer conditions. Calves were paired (n = 10) at 7 d of age and placed in one of 10 pens (7.32 × 2.44 m, deep bedded with bark mulch), each with equally sized outdoor and indoor areas. All feed was provided indoors; calves had ad libitum access to water, hay and concentrate. During the preweaning period, from 5 to 29 d of age, calves were offered 12 L/d of milk divided into 2 feedings. Calves were weaned stepwise, with milk gradually reduced by 1 L/d from d 30 to 35 of age. Calves were fed 6 L/d from 35 to 51 d of age, then milk was again reduced by 1 L/d so that calves were completely weaned by 56 d of age. Calves remained in the trial until, on average (± SD), 72 ± 2 d of age. Pens were continuously video recorded, and behaviors were scored 3 d/wk using 5-min scan samples. Four observers scored whether calves were inside, outside, lying, standing, in the sun or shade (interobserver reliability = 0.97). Sun and shade could not always be detected, so a proportion was calculated as the amount of time in the sun or shade divided by the total time sun or shade was visible. Calves spent approximately one-third of their time outside throughout the experiment, and time spent outside was affected by several factors. Pairs of calves spent less time outside as the amount of rain increased. During the first 6 wk of age, time spent outside increased, but time spent outside decreased between wk 6 and 7, and remained around 200 min/d from wk 7 to 11. Calves with the highest average daily gain and calves that were approximately 50% white appeared to spend more time outdoors. When outside, calves spent similar amounts of time in the sun and shade during the first 8 wk, but after weaning they appeared to spend more time in the shade. When calves were outside they appeared to spend a greater proportion of their time standing than when they were indoors during the first 4 wk. These results indicate that, when given the option in the summer, calves make use of an outdoor space, but this appears to vary with weather, calf age, average daily gain, and coat color.

Views of Western Canadian dairy producers on calf rearing: An interview-based study.

Calf rearing practices differ among farms, including feeding and weaning methods. These differences may relate to how dairy producers view these practices and evaluate their own success. The aim of this study was to investigate perspectives of dairy producers on calf rearing, focusing on calf weaning and how they characterized weaning success. We interviewed dairy producers from 16 farms in Western Canada in the following provinces: British Columbia (n = 12), Manitoba (n = 2), and Alberta (n = 2). Participants were asked to describe their heifer calf weaning and rearing practices, and what they viewed as successes and challenges in weaning and rearing calves. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and subjected to qualitative analysis from which we identified the following 4 major themes: (1) reliance on calf-based measures (e.g., health, growth, and behavior), (2) management factors and personal experiences (e.g., ease, consistency, and habit), (3) environmental factors (e.g., facilities and equipment), and (4) external support (e.g., advice and educational opportunities). These results provided insight into how dairy producers view calf weaning and rearing, and may help inform the design of future research and knowledge transfer projects aimed at improving management practices on dairy farms.

Measuring lameness prevalence: Effects of case definition and assessment frequency.

Lameness assessments are commonly conducted at a single point in time, but such assessments are subject to multiple sources of error. We conducted a longitudinal study, assessing the gait of 282 lactating dairy cows weekly during the first 12 wk of lactation, with the aim of assessing how lameness prevalence changed in relation to case definition and assessment frequency. Gait was scored using a 5-point scale where scores of 1 and 2 were considered sound, 3 was clinically lame, and 4 and 5 were severely lame. We created 5 lameness definitions using increasingly stringent thresholds based upon the number of consecutive events of locomotion score ≥3. In LAME1, a cow was considered lame when locomotion score was ≥3 at any scoring event, in LAME2, LAME3, LAME4, and LAME5, a cow was considered lame when locomotion score was 3 or higher during 2, 3, 4, and 5 consecutive scoring events, respectively. We also assessed the effect of assessment frequency on measures of prevalence and incidence using weekly assessment (ASSM1), 1 assessment every 2 wk (ASSM2), 1 assessment every 3 wk (ASSM3), and 1 assessment every 4 wk (ASSM4). Using LAME1, 69.2% of cows were considered lame at some point during the trial, with an average point prevalence of 31.8% (SD: 2.8) and average incidence rate of 10.9 cases/100 cow weeks (SD: 3.7). Lameness prevalence decreased to 28.0% when using LAME5. Survival analysis was used to assess the effects of parity, using these different case definitions. Parity is a known risk for lameness, such that case definitions and prevalence estimates should be stratified by parity to inform management decisions. Using the LAME3 criterion, primiparous cows had the highest chance of reaching 12 wk without a lameness event, and fourth and higher parities had the lowest. Weighted linear and quadratic kappa values were used to assess agreement between different assessment frequencies and lameness definitions; we found substantial to excellent agreement between ASSM1 and ASSM2 using LAME1, LAME2, and LAME3 definitions. Agreement was fair to substantial between ASSM1 and ASSM3 and low to fair between ASSM1 and ASSM4. Likewise, the agreement between LAME1 and LAME2 was fair in primiparous cows, substantial in second and third parity cows, and poor to fair in fourth and greater parity cows. We conclude that lameness prevalence estimates are dependent upon case definition and that the use of more stringent case definitions results in fewer cows classified as lame. These results suggest that routine locomotion assessments be conducted at least every 2 wk, and that cows should be defined as lame on the basis of 2 consecutive assessments.

Western Canadian dairy farmers' perspectives on the provision of outdoor access for dairy cows and on the perceptions of other stakeholders.

The provision of pasture and outdoor access for dairy cattle differs around the globe. For example, in Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia, dairy farms are largely pasture based, whereas dairy farms in the United States and Canada are largely confinement based. There is a high level of public support for pasture and outdoor access for dairy cows, and the available evidence shows that dairy cattle are highly motivated to access pasture, especially at night. The decision as to whether to provide outdoor access is typically made by farmers, but little is known about dairy farmers' perspectives on this topic. We investigated perspectives of Western Canadian dairy farmers on outdoor access, as well as how they believe different stakeholders (i.e., the dairy industry, the dairy cows, and the general public) regard outdoor access for dairy cows. Data were collected via (1) 11 focus group discussions with a total of 50 Western Canadian dairy farmers, and (2) semi-structured individual interviews with an additional 6 dairy farmers of Hutterite colonies. Data were analyzed using template analysis. Although most participants in this study did not provide outdoor access on their farms, or only provided outdoor access to certain cow groups, participants generally mentioned that they enjoyed seeing cows on pasture or outdoors. However, participants shared that the Canadian supply management system (including processors) required a consistent flow of production, which was thought to be easier and more economically realized with indoor housing of lactating cows. Participants believed that pasture or outdoor access for dairy cows was desired by the public. Some participants believed that dairy cows prefer to spend time outside under favorable weather conditions, but others felt that cows preferred to stay indoors in modern, ventilated freestall barns. The results of this study describe the perspectives of dairy farmers regarding the views of dairy industry stakeholders as they relate to outdoor access, helping to inform conversations around the provision of outdoor access for dairy cattle.

Pain in the weeks following surgical and rubber ring castration in dairy calves.

Many male dairy calves are castrated when reared for beef production, but for dairy breeds the assessment of the longer-lasting pain associated with this procedure has received little scientific attention. In this study we assessed 2 methods: surgical (n = 10 calves) and rubber ring (n = 11). All calves were castrated at 28 d of age using multimodal pain control. During the 8 wk that followed, we recorded wound healing, local inflammation, body weight, milk and calf starter intake, lying time, and wound-directed behavior. Surgical wounds were fully healed on average 4 wk after the procedure, but only 1 calf in the rubber ring treatment fully healed within the 8-wk study. Inflammation was greater after rubber ring castration; skin temperature in the area around the lesion was 1.7 ± 0.35°C (mean ± standard deviation) higher than for the surgical treatment. Compared with surgically castrated calves, those castrated by rubber ring gained less weight over the study period (on average 11.9 ± 5.1 kg less), a difference due in part to lower intake of calf starter (on average 1.8 ± 0.6 kg less). Calves in the rubber ring treatment spent less time lying down (on average 4.2 ± 1.2% fewer scans per day) and licked their lesions more frequently (on average 16.0 ± 3.3 more licks per day). We conclude that the rubber ring calves experienced more pain in the weeks following the procedure and thus recommend that surgical castration be favored for preweaning dairy calves.