Abstract The quality of the social environment should be studied as one of the welfare components of dairy herds. Licking and preference between cows are important socio-positive experiences in this context.The aims of this study were: 1) to describe the behaviours temporally associated with social licking in grazing dairy cows, 2) to measure the association of social licking with social hierarchy and gestational state and 3) to compare social licking between preferred mates – cows that are more often in close proximity – and other mates. Six commercial Jersey herds, averaging 24.6 ± 5 lactating cows per herd, and managed on a rotational grazing system year-round, were enrolled in the study. Herds were kept constant for at least 30 d before data collection, and at four days before data collection the herds were habituated to the data collection routine. The behaviours of all cows within each herd were observed through direct observation for six days between milking, from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm. A total of 148 cows were observed for 42 h each during the study period. Licking events and agonistic interactions were observed continuously, and the individual instigator and receptor participating in each event were recorded. All agonistic interactions were registered, and a sociometric matrix was developed for each herd. Scan sampling (every 6-min) was used to register behaviours of each individual cow and its closest neighbours. Licking was a widespread behaviour in the studied herds, registered in 94.5 % of the cows and occurring most often around 10:00, during ingestive behaviours. Social lickings were most often observed immediately before drinking or mineralizing, and immediately after idling or ruminating. Social hierarchy was not associated with the number of social lickings. Pregnant cows received 1.63 more lickings than non-pregnant cows but didn’t perform more. Furthermore, older cows performed and received more lickings than primiparous cows. Social licking interactions were higher (1.89 vs. 0.62; p ≤ 0.01) between preferential mates than the average for the herd. Similarly, agonistic interactions between preferential mates was higher (1.97 vs. 1.52; p ≤ 0.01) than observed among the average herd. Our results reveal that social licking is widespread among herds and suggests an association with social preferences when cows are on pasture, which may be related to affinity among cows. Preferred mates also showed greater number of agonistic interactions.

中文翻译：

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放牧奶牛的舔和激动相互作用作为优惠公司的指标

摘要 社会环境质量应作为奶牛福利的组成部分之一进行研究。在这种情况下，奶牛之间的舔食和偏好是重要的社会积极体验。 本研究的目的是：1）描述与放牧奶牛的社交舔食在时间上相关的行为，2）衡量社交舔食与社会等级的关联和妊娠状态以及 3) 比较喜欢的伴侣——更经常靠近的奶牛——和其他伴侣之间的社会舔食。六个商业泽西牛群，平均每群 24.6 ± 5 头泌乳奶牛，全年采用轮牧系统管理，参与了这项研究。在数据收集前，畜群至少保持稳定 30 天，在数据收集前四天，牛群已经习惯了数据收集程序。在挤奶之间的 6 天内，从上午 8:00 到下午 3:00，通过直接观察观察每个牛群中所有奶牛的行为。在研究期间，总共观察了 148 头奶牛，每头奶牛 42 小时。不断观察舔事件和激动相互作用，并记录参与每个事件的个体发起者和受体。记录了所有激动的相互作用，并为每个牛群开发了一个社会测量矩阵。扫描采样（每 6 分钟一次）用于记录每头奶牛及其最近邻居的行为。在所研究的牛群中，舔是一种普遍的行为，在 94.5% 的奶牛中发生，最常发生在 10:00 左右，在摄食行为期间。社会性舔食最常在饮酒或矿化之前立即观察到，以及在空闲或反刍之后立即观察到。社会等级与社会舔的次数无关。怀孕的奶牛比未怀孕的奶牛多接受 1.63 次舔食，但没有表现出更多。此外，与初产奶牛相比，年长的奶牛表现和接受的舔食次数更多。优先配偶之间的社会舔互动比群体的平均水平更高（1.89 对 0.62；p ≤ 0.01）。同样，优先配偶之间的激动相互作用比在平均群体中观察到的更高（1.97 对 1.52；p ≤ 0.01）。我们的研究结果表明，社会舔在牛群中很普遍，并表明当奶牛在牧场上时与社会偏好有关，这可能与奶牛之间的亲和力有关。