Val av liggplats och väderskydd hos dikor vid utedrift vintertid

Abstract: If you keep cattle in a herd outside all year round on big varying grounds, their possibilityto perform their natural behaviour increases. This way of keeping cattle requires that youprovide them with their other needs, like shelter and a dry and clean resting place.According to the animal welfare authority´s regulations on livestock farming, only animalsthat are suited to stay outside during the cold season are allowed to be kept outside. Theyshould also have access to a shelter or another building that gives them protection from theweather and wind and provides a dry and clean resting place.Research has shown that as long as cattle do not get exposed to precipitation and wind theywill manage low temperature well. Some of the things that will affect how well the animalshandle different climates are the isolation ability of the fur, the animals´ body size and thefeed intake. A dry lying place that is both insulating and moisture absorbent is also of greatimportance. The animals increase the time they are lying down in bad weather conditions,such as rain and wind. By lying down they save their energy and reduce their body surface,and thereby reduce the heat radiation.The purpose with this Bachelor thesis is to enhance the understanding of where a herd ofsuckler cows which are kept outside during winter time in the middle of Sweden, choosesto seek shelter, how they distribute their resting time over the diurnal cycle, and in wichterrain they prefer to lie.The data collection took place on a herd of 60 suckler cows in Gävleborg. The animals onthe farm were mainly Hereford cross-breds of varying age. The area in which the animalswere kept during the data collection period was 40 hectares large, and consisted of variedterrain. The animals had access to four shelters of the circular arc model. The datacollection was conducted during two different periods (October and February) to covervarious weather conditions. Eight focal animals which would carry measuring equipmentwere selected for each collection period that lasted 21 days each. They carried the GPScollars, which recorded the cows positions every 15 minutes around the clock during theentire period, and activity meters, which made the registrations every minute, to determinewhether the animals were lying, walking or standing. A stationary weather station recordedthe weather every 15 minutes. Data have been processed so that all missed GPS recordingsof where the animals were, was treated as they were in a shelter due to that the GPS collarsoften have difficulties to get satellite contact under a tin roof. However, this can give a toohigh number of recordings of staying in the shelter, and therefore we call this variable"shelter + missed".This study shows that suckler cows that were kept outside during October and February inthe middle of Sweden were lying down approximately one third of the day and that theyappeared to be lying down as much as in the "shelter+missing" as in the natural protection.Approximately one third of the time, the suckler cows spent in open terrain. The area thatthe animals spent the most time after the open terrain was the "shelter+missing". Almost asmuch time that was spent in the "shelter+missing" (19,3%) was spent even in the densespruce forest (16,6%). In the sparse wood the suckler cows were standing (50,7%) andlying (49,3%) about the same, while they were standing (80,3%) much more than they werelying (19,7%) in the dense forest. The "shelter+missing" was the protection that differedthe most from the other protection areas because the animals were lying down significantlymore (65,3%) than they were standing (34,7%). During 83,8% of the time the suckler cows were recorded in some sort of protection when they were lying down at night. The sucklercows were lying 2,4% at night, 8,8% during dawn-dusk and 6,6% during the day.The conclusion is that the suckler cows that were kept outside during the winter time in thisherd were lying mostly at night, that this happened mostly in protected areas, and that theshelters seemed to be a protection they used.