Angela M. Wilson

University of Guelph | UOGuelph · Animal Biosciences

During heat stress, dairy cows spend less time lying down to dissipate heat. Heat stress abatement strategies generally target cows outside of their resting areas. However, cooling cows while in their stalls could help alleviate heat stress without compromising lying behavior. The objective of this study was to assess the effects of an inspired-air...

Light from the environment is important for vision and regulating various biological processes. Providing supplemental lighting in the stall area could allow for individually targeted or group-level control of light. This study aimed to determine whether dairy cattle had preferences for short-term exposure to white (full-spectrum) light-emitting di...

Free-stalls for dairy cows promote cleanliness, provide cows with a defined space to lie down, and decrease labor and bedding required for maintenance. However, current stall features can restrict behavior and reduce stall use. The objective of this study was to assess the short-term effect of a novel free-stall design (flexible single-bar partitio...

The longitudinal slope of a stall is important for positioning cows in the stall and maintaining cleanliness of the stall surface. The objectives of this study were to determine the short-term effect of increasing free-stall slope from 4.5% to 9.3% on dairy cow lying behavior, rumination, milk production, cleanliness, and preference. In experiment...

Genetic selection of dairy cattle has been successful in improving production and conformation traits over time, but change has not been assessed for feed efficiency and methane emissions. Genetic evaluation of these complex traits is difficult, and requires the use of expensive methods and materials that are not practical on commercial farms. As a...