Lene Munksgaard’s research while affiliated with Aarhus University and other places

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Publications (97)


The relationship between feed efficiency and behaviour differs between lactating Holstein and Jersey cows
  • Article
  • Full-text available

August 2023

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65 Reads

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5 Citations

Journal of Dairy Research

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Lene Munksgaard

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Marta Terré

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[...]

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In dairy production, high feed efficiency (FE) is important to reduce feed costs and negative impacts of milk production on the climate and environment, yet little is known about the relationship between FE, eating behaviour and activity. This research communication describes how cows differing in FE, expressed as daily energy corrected milk production per unit of feed intake, differed in eating behaviour and activity. We used data from a study of 253 lactations obtained from 97 Holstein and 91 Jersey cows milked in an automatic milking system. Automated feed troughs recorded feed intake behaviour and cows wore a sensor that recorded activity from 5 to 200 d in milk (DIM). We used a mixed linear model to estimate random solutions for individual cows for traits of steps, lying and eating behaviour and calculated their correlation with FE during four periods (5-35, 36-75, 76-120 and 121-200 DIM). Separate analyses were performed for each breed and period. We found that individual level correlations between FE and behaviour traits were stronger in Jersey than in Holstein cows. Eating rate correlated weakly negatively to FE in Holstein cows and more strongly so in Jersey cows, such that efficient Jerseys were slower eaters. The physical activity of Jersey cows was weakly and negatively correlated to FE, but this was not the case in Holstein cows. We conclude that eating rate was consistently negatively associated with FE throughout lactation for Jersey cows, but not for Holstein cows.

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Opinion paper: How can we achieve standards and common guidelines for experimental studies with cattle?

June 2022

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165 Reads

animal

• We aimed to establish common guidelines for experimental studies with cattle. • A book on “Methods in cattle physiology and behaviour research” was published. • The book is designed as an open-access living handbook and is open to everyone. • Citing the book saves space and avoids repetitions in scientific journals. • Referencing guidelines reduces apparent plagiarism among authors.


Milking related plasma concentrations of (A) oxytocin, (B) ACTH, and (C) cortisol when cows were exposed to the sensory treatments abdominal brushing or no brushing and (D–F) with stimuli feeding of concentrates or no feed during milking. Data showed as arithmetic mean values. Manual pre-stimulation started at time -1 and onset of milking cluster occurred at time 0, n = 11.
Milking related plasma concentrations of oxytocin, ACTH and cortisol in dairy cows exposed to feeding or abdominal brushing during milking.
Feeding and Manual Brushing Influence the Release of Oxytocin, ACTH and Cortisol Differently During Milking in Dairy Cows

March 2022

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111 Reads

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5 Citations

Aim This study aimed to examine the effects of feeding or abdominal brushing on the release of the hormones oxytocin, ACTH and cortisol during milking in dairy cows. Methods Twelve cows in early lactation were used (2 × 2 factorial experimental design), testing the effects of two types of sensory stimulation during milking over a 3 day period; feeding concentrate or manual abdominal brushing (1 stroke/s). Blood samples for hormone analyses were collected at time at −15, −1, 0 (onset of cluster), every min for 8 min, at 10, 12, 14, 16, 30, and 60 min. Hormone levels were assayed and AUC was calculated. Results Milking was associated with an immediate and significant rise of oxytocin. When milking was combined with feeding, significantly higher levels of oxytocin were observed at 2 and 4 mins (p < 0.05). No effect of brushing on oxytocin levels was observed. Milking alone was associated with a significant rise of ACTH levels. Feeding in connection with milking reduced the immediate rise of ACTH levels (p < 0.05) and AUC (p < 0.02), whereas no effects of brushing were found. Milking caused a progressive rise of cortisol levels. Concomitant feeding did not influence cortisol levels, whereas brushing significantly decreased cortisol levels at 1, 5 and 14 mins after onset of milking (p < 0.05). Conclusion Feeding increases oxytocin release in response to milking and decreases ACTH levels. Abdominal brushing did not influence these variables, but decreased cortisol levels. These data demonstrate that activation of afferent vagal nerve fibres and of cutaneous sensory nerves originating from the abdominal skin in front of the udder influence milking related hormone release differently.


Comparison of the feeding behaviour of primiparous and multiparous Jersey and Holstein cows kept under equal conditions throughout lactation

February 2022

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31 Reads

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3 Citations

Journal of Dairy Research

The objective of the study was to describe the feeding behaviour of primiparous and multiparous Jersey cows compared to Holstein cows housed in separate groups in the same barn. Such information could help farmers to optimise management with respect to welfare and production. Yet, it remains limited for Jersey cows over the entire period of lactation. Feeding data of 116 Danish Jersey (mean parity 2.14 ± 1.32) and 218 Danish Holstein cows (mean parity 1.90 ± 1.16) were assessed using automatic feeders from day 15 to 252 of lactation. Total eating duration, duration of eating per visit, intervals between meals, number of visits per day and the eating rate were analysed using linear mixed effects models. The cows were kept in a loose-housing system, with cubicles and automatic milking robots, and the group composition was dynamic. Compared to Holstein cows, Jersey cows visited the feeder significantly more often with shorter between meal intervals. However, the visit duration and total daily eating time and eating rates were significantly shorter for Jersey cows. There was no difference between breeds in the daily eating time and eating rate of older cows. Younger Jersey cows had significantly lower eating rates than older Jersey cows. No other difference in parity was found within Jersey cows. Weeks in milk significantly affected the eating time per day, number of visits per day and eating rate. The trajectories of outcome variables during lactation did not differ between the two breeds. In conclusion, we found substantial differences in the feeding behaviour of Jersey and Holstein cows, however, these differences could also be related to a group effect.




Technical note: Random forests prediction of daily eating time of dairy cows from 3-dimensional accelerometer and radiofrequency identification

April 2020

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28 Reads

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11 Citations

Journal of Dairy Science

Feed intake and time spent eating at the feed bunk are important predictors of dairy cows' productivity and animal welfare, and deviations from normal eating behavior may indicate subclinical or clinical disease. In the current study, we developed a random forests algorithm to predict dairy cows' daily eating time (of a total mixed ration from a common feed bunk) using data from a 3-dimensional accelerometer and a radiofrequency identification (RFID) prototype device (logger) mounted on a neck collar. Models were trained on continuous focal animal observations from a total of 24 video recordings of 18 dairy cows at the Danish Cattle Research Centre (Foulum, Tjele, Denmark). Each session lasted from 21 to 48 h. The models included both the present time signal and observations several seconds back in time (lag window). These time-lagged signals were included with the purpose of capturing changes over time. Because of the high costs of installing an RFID antenna in the feed bunk, we also investigated a model based solely on 3-dimensional accelerometer data. Furthermore, to address the trade-off between prediction accuracy and reduced model complexity and its implications for battery longevity, we investigated the importance of including observations back in time using lag window sizes between 8 and 128 s. Performance was evaluated by internal leave-one-cow-out cross-validation. The results indicated that we obtained accurate predictions of daily eating time. For the most complex model (a lag window size of 128 s), the median of the balanced accuracy was 0.95 (interquartile interval: 0.93 to 0.96), and the median daily eating time deviation was 7 min 37 s (interquartile interval: −6 to 15 min). The median of the average daily eating time during sessions was 3 h 41 min with an interquartile interval of 2 h 56 min to 4 h 16 min. Exclusion of RFID data resulted in a considerable decrease in prediction accuracy, mainly due to a decreased sensitivity of locating the cow at the feed bunk (median balanced accuracy of 0.87 at a lag window size of 128 s). In contrast, prediction accuracy only slightly decreased with decreasing lag window size (median balanced accuracy of 0.94 at a lag window size of 8 s). We suggest a lag window size of 64 s for further development of the prototype logger. The methodology presented in this paper may be relevant for future automatic recordings of eating behavior in commercial dairy herds.


Figure 2. Behavior, DMI, milk yield, and live weight during lactation in primiparous Jersey, multiparous Jersey, primiparous Holstein, and multiparous Holstein cows. □, orange = Jersey parity 1; ■, orange = Jersey parity >1; ○, blue = Holstein parity 1; •, blue = Holstein parity >1.
Number of cows in each breed, parity, and stage of lactation 1
Changes to steps, lying, and eating behavior during lactation in Jersey and Holstein cows and the relationship to feed intake, yield, and weight

March 2020

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145 Reads

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31 Citations

Journal of Dairy Science

Devices that record behavior automatically have made it possible to accurately measure the lying and eating behavior of large numbers of dairy cows. During lactation, weight, feed intake, and production of cows change; however, longitudinal studies of how the behavior of dairy cows is correlated with production traits during lactation are limited. This study describes changes in duration of lying and eating behavior throughout lactation and how these variables are related to changes in milk yield, live weight, and feed intake in lactating primi- and multiparous Holstein and Jersey cows. Data were from 255 cow lactations (43 primi- and 80 multiparous Jersey cows, and 56 primi- and 76 multiparous Holstein cows) from 5 to 200 d in milk. Leg-mounted tags were used to record lying time and steps; ad libitum feed intake (of a partial mixed ration) variables were recorded from feed bins on weight cells; and milk yield and live weight were recorded during automatic milking, all on a daily basis. The lactation trajectory was split into 4 segments. Data were analyzed using mixed effects linear models. Holstein cows spent more time lying and eating than Jersey cows, whereas Jersey cows had a greater number of steps (25-37%). First-lactation cows spent less time eating and had more steps than older cows. Average daily lying time was approximately 1 h longer during February than the shortest lying time, which was observed in August. Both Holstein and Jersey multiparous cows had longer lying times than cows in first parity after parturition; however, the lying time of multiparous cows decreased, whereas that of primiparous cows increased in the beginning of lactation. Later in lactation, older cows tended to increase duration of lying more than younger cows did. The daily change in behavior (lying, eating, and steps) and milk yield, live weight, and dry matter intake, characterized as slopes in the lactation period for each cow, were not strongly correlated. However, we found a moderate correlation between changes in milk yield and dry matter intake, and between changes in eating time and rate of eating. An increase in eating rate in multiparous Holstein cows was correlated with increasing lying time. In conclusion, the use of automated behavior recording enabled thorough investigations of relationships between a range of behavior traits and frequently recorded production traits, and revealed that patterns of change during lactation are strongly affected by breed and parity.


Feasibility of EVolutionary OPeration (EVOP) as a concept for herd-specific management in commercial dairy herds

March 2020

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66 Reads

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10 Citations

Livestock Science

Dairy farming is a complex production system involving biological, technological and human inputs. Therefore, ‘general knowledge of cause and effect’ often seems inadequate to identify and implement optimal management procedures. To solve herd-specific problems, this paper explores the potential of planned experiments for internal use at the farm level to take advantage of local causal relationships. The shift towards larger dairy herds with access to automatic data recordings of a large number of relevant inputs and performance indicators supports the development of management tools that are able to estimate the effect of changes made in daily management on individual farms. The concept of EVolutionary OPeration (EVOP) implies making small systematic changes in production factors or procedures while running the production and continuously evaluating the results. The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate the feasibility of implementing EVOP in commercial dairy herds as an integral part of herd management. The concept of EVOP-Dairy is based on five principles: 1) farmer-driven identification of areas for improvement; 2) herd-specific goals for the interventions to be evaluated in EVOP trials; 3) a short EVOP trial period; 4) simple, but statistically sound, EVOP designs including data access and 5) regular estimation of intervention effects and frequent reporting to the farmer. The project involved three activities: first, visiting a number of dairy farms with the aim of identifying areas for management improvements and to define potential EVOP interventions and relevant designs of EVOP trials; second, conducting a series of EVOP trials to develop data registration, statistical models, analysis and reporting; third, interviewing the farmers to obtain their opinion of the conceptual idea and the process. These activities were documented for the twelve project farms, and five different EVOP trials are described in detail to illustrate the concept. In conclusion, the farmers found the concept a useful management improvement tool, although the EVOP trials created additional work. The EVOP-Dairy statistical models need to include dynamic multilevel data and control for confounding factors when estimating intervention effects, as design with randomization was not feasible in the majority of the identified EVOP trials. Therefore, future development for the EVOP-Dairy should focus on i) easy to implement and execute interventions, ii) guidelines to interpret intervention effect when practical conditions hinder fully randomized and well replicated interventions, and iii) automation of the data analysis and reporting part of the concept.



Citations (76)


... Given that cows respond to different managements, new technologies have been tested to modify behaviour of individual cows within a herd. For instance, a cow-calling system was tested in Europe (Wredle et al., 2004), in which an audible signal was emitted from a device in the cows' collar, as a way of indicating cows with long MI to walk back towards the dairy. Cows seemed to respond positively to the sound, yet did not always enter the milking unit promptly. ...

Reference:

Milking frequency management in pasture-based automatic milking systems: A review
An individual cow-calling system to motivate cows to return from the pasture to the milking unit
  • Citing Chapter
  • October 2004

... Dalším faktorem, který může ovlivnit délku doby ležení dojnic, je délka doby příjmu krmiva a dojení. Bylo zjištěno, že pokud se v chovech zvýšila délka doby potřebné pro příjem krmiva došlo ke snížení doby ležení (Munksgaard et al. 2006). U krav chovaných ve stájí s vaznou technologií ustájení bylo zjištěno, že délka doby příjmu nízkoenergetické krmné dávky byla 6,4 hod. ...

Effects of nutrition on stress reactivity
  • Citing Chapter
  • October 2006

... However, in growing animals, the early lactation dilemma is not present, which limits the generalisability to dairy cattle. To the authors' knowledge, there is sparse literature on how biological processes such as activity and feeding behaviour change over the lactation period from a genetic point of view, but few phenotypic studies have been conducted (Connor et al., 2013;Olijhoek et al., 2020;Thorup et al., 2023). Another reason for the changes in RFI throughout lactation could be the pollution of the residuals that arises from variation among individuals in digestibility (Martin et al., 2021a). ...

The relationship between feed efficiency and behaviour differs between lactating Holstein and Jersey cows

Journal of Dairy Research

... The anti-stress effects caused by breastfeeding may be turned into long lasting effect. After 6 weeks of breastfeeding basal blood pressure is significantly decreased, indicating a more long term antistress effect in response to repetitive breastfeeding (135). Despite this decrease of basal levels of blood pressure each breastfeeding episode is linked to a short term decrease of blood pressure. ...

Feeding and Manual Brushing Influence the Release of Oxytocin, ACTH and Cortisol Differently During Milking in Dairy Cows

... The treatment × parity interactions for molar proportions of acetate, isobutyrate, and isovalerate herein observed might be related to differences in feeding behaviors. For instance, multiparous cows have faster eating rates than primiparous cows Gündel et al., 2022). Thus, increasing the frequency of concentrate feeding to multiparous cows (i.e., cows that have larger ruminal capacity and faster eating rates) might have decreased the amount of concentrate fermented in the rumen, promoting ruminal fermentation effects similar to those found with TMR, and providing a more constant and limited supply of nutrients in SF×6 relative to SF×3. ...

Comparison of the feeding behaviour of primiparous and multiparous Jersey and Holstein cows kept under equal conditions throughout lactation
  • Citing Article
  • February 2022

Journal of Dairy Research

... Many of the reactions of livestock to humans are attributed to fear (Silveira et al., 2012), which has been shown to be related to factors such as species, breed, sex, age and prior experience (Rushen et al., 2001). During handling, animal welfare can be compromised by a series of factors that include: the training and attitude of operators (Villarroel et al., 2001), the nature of the handling procedures (gentle vs. rough), the temperament of the animals, and the quality of the facilities . ...

People as social actors in the world of farm animals.
  • Citing Chapter
  • April 2001

... For an extended application, the robustness needs to be improved. Weight and measurements-especially in relation to the animal-are notable factors in the development and validation of monitoring systems [71]. As cows with different body weights and heights were used in our study, varying systems relative to animal relations were included in the training and validation of our model. ...

A checklist to validate sensor output for the recording of cattle behaviour

... One possible way to predict animal behavior and define the best monitoring frequency, to save sensor energy and minimize the storage burden of the monitoring system, is the development and appropriate selection of accurate classification models based on machine learning (ML) algorithms for data mining (Benaissa et al., 2019;Hounslow et al., 2019). Different ML models have been used for ruminant behavior classification based on flexible and generalist algorithms, such as Random Forest (Abell et al., 2017;Foldager et al., 2020;Ikurior et al., 2021;Simanungkalit et al., 2021), Support Vector Machine (Smith et al., 2016;Mansbridge et al., 2018;Benaissa et al., 2019), and K-Nearest Neighbours (Mansbridge et al., 2018;Simanungkalit et al., 2021;Tian et al., 2021). ...

Technical note: Random forests prediction of daily eating time of dairy cows from 3-dimensional accelerometer and radiofrequency identification
  • Citing Article
  • April 2020

Journal of Dairy Science

... Aggregation has provided useful information on the time budgets of dairy cows. For example, we now know that a cows' daily time budget is affected by breed, parity, lactation stage and season [23,24]. This makes it worthwhile to investigate the 24-h pattern of behaviour, both for management purposes and for disease detection. ...

Changes to steps, lying, and eating behavior during lactation in Jersey and Holstein cows and the relationship to feed intake, yield, and weight

Journal of Dairy Science

... They concluded that the EVOP methodology can quickly provide indications of the optimal combination of production factors within a pig herd. The feasibility of the EVOP methodology has been explored as an integral part of dairy herd management (Østergaard et al., 2020;Skjølstrup et al., 2022) and has been applied on commercial dairy farms for interventions related to feeding (Stygar et al., 2017) and animal behaviour (Czubernat et al., 2020). Mastitis is a multifactorial problem and may therefore be more prone to local truths than other diseases, such that a particular intervention may or may not have the desired effect in any given herd. ...

Feasibility of EVolutionary OPeration (EVOP) as a concept for herd-specific management in commercial dairy herds
  • Citing Article
  • March 2020

Livestock Science