Effects of Cow Comfort on Milk Quality, Productivity, and Behavior

Overstocking of free stall barns, defined as housing more cows within a pen than the available number of stalls and (or) providing less than the recommended 0.6 m (23 in) of linear feeding space per cow (Grant and Albright, 2001), is a practice commonly employed by dairy producers to expand herd size without increasing the facility investment (Bewley et al., 2001). The shortand long-term effects of this practice on dairy cow behavior, productivity, and health are not fully understood. However, third-party auditing organizations such as Humane Farm Animal Care (www.certifiedhumane.org) currently require that member farms limit the number of cows within a pen to a number less than or equal to the number of free stalls. The current draft of the Dairy Well-Being Initiative (www.dairywellbeing.org), which represents the dairy industry consensus on animal welfare, contains language that would require adequate resting space to be available for all animals housed within a pen. The basis for these recommendations is the recognition that health, productivity, and welfare of dairy cows relies on their ability to meet their behavioral needs each day.