Composição de escore temperamental por meio de monitoramento do comportamento e desempenho de vacas em sistema compost barn em duas épocas do ano

Abstract

In ruminant production systems, behavioral observation in the milking environment is extremely important for determining the animal's temperament score, which is essential for determining the level of well-being. Thus, this study evaluated the temperament score of cows through behavioral observations such as displacement, kicking, movement, urination, defecation, vocalization, removal of the liner cup, coupling of the liner, milk let-down time, milking time and verified its influence on the productive characteristics in a compost barn system in the Alto Sertão Sergipano. 30 Girolando cows were used, at the beginning of lactation with SLI <70 days. The cows were fed according to the food management already used on the farm. The analysis of the temperament score (ET) was made by composing four classes arranged in ascending order as follows: 1 Calm, 2 Active, 3 Restless and 4 Very Disturbed. Significant differences were found for (p<0.05) both in the rainy season and in the dry season for the variables coupling and cup removal, where the animals that presented the temperament score (ET) 3 presented the highest averages, demonstrating more reactive during milking. The milk production variable had no significant effect on the two seasons evaluated (p>0.05). For the milk letdown time variable, there was only a significant effect in the rainy season. However, in the evaluations of the two dry and rainy seasons, there was no significant effect (p>0.05) on the duration of milking. It is noteworthy that ET 4 attributed to nervous animals was not applied, as there was no incidence. In the dry period, the animals had more reactions compared to the rainy period. Animals with ET 1 and 2 did not differ from each other for CCS at any time. When evaluating the effect of temperament on the composition of milk in the dry and rainy seasons, there was no significant effect (p>0.05), that is, the time of year and/or temperament did not influence this variable. For the variable milk letdown time and milk production there was no significant effect (p>0.05). For the ITGU data, higher values were observed in the rainy season both inside and outside the compost with averages varying from 72.9 to 74.9 in the dry season and 75.7 and 78.6 in the rainy season and the UTI averages alone varying from 71.1 to 72.9 outside the compost in the dry and rainy seasons, respectively and ITU 77.7 inside the compost in the rainy season. It can be seen that the animals show greater reactivity due to their temperament in the rainy season at the time of coupling and removal of teatcups and that the duration of milking and milk production are not influenced by ET in any of the seasons. Furthermore, the more reactive animals had higher SCC, and the composition of the milk was not influenced. Furthermore, to better evaluate the thermal environment in which cows are raised, the ITGU better characterized the environment, with the animals being in a comfortable situation under mild thermal stress, not posing any risks to the cows' thermoregulation. However, if only the ITU was evaluated, it would not be positively classified in terms of thermal comfort and efficient thermoregulation of cows.