Maternal behaviour of dairy cows and interaction with their offspring in the first hours post partum

In recent years consumers became more aware and sensitive to animal welfare issues, even leading to demonstrations and initiatives to express their concerns. One of them refers to the early separation of calves from their dams in conventional dairy farms, that has been a longstanding practice in many Countries. Nevertheless, dairy cows still possess their maternal and protective instincts towards the offspring, and thus this study was carried out to investigate how dams spend their first hours after parturition, when they have the opportunity to stay with their calves. For this purpose, a convenience sample of six dams of Pezzata Rossa Italiana breed, which calved between December 2020 and June 2021 was selected at the "Lucio Toniolo" Experimental Farm of the University of Padua, Italy. All dams involved in the study gave birth during the night and spent with new-born calves at least their first 4 hours of life, before separation time established by farm personnel occurred. One dam was primiparous while the others were of 3rd, 4th and 7th parity. Dams were observed through video-recordings for 4 hours starting from the moment in which the calf was delivered. Behavioural data were extracted by one trained observer using a working ethogram and instantaneous sampling method at 30-second scan intervals. Data were then submitted to descriptive statistical analysis. Among maternal behaviours, results show that dams were engaged above all in calf grooming with an overall percentage of time of 35.5±26.2 (mean±d.s.), and in particular during the first hour after parturition (73.8%); this behaviour was performed in a standing position most of the time, both in the front and in the back of the pen without any difference. Dams sniffed their calves (1.9±5.7) especially during the first two hours after parturition, with mean percentages of 18.3% and 21.7%, respectively. On the contrary, nursing behaviour (1.4±3.3) was never observed during the first hour; calves started to suckle from the second hour, with the higher prevalence during the fourth (8.3%). It is interesting to notice that dams tended to nurse their calves mostly in the back of the pen (93.3%), as if they were choosing a calm and secluded place where to feed them. With a very low overall percentage (0.8±0.9) and an increasing percentage of scans over the four hours, dams also showed nudging behaviour. In general, during the whole observation time dams spent 80.5±25 percent of time maintaining physical contact and 8.5±16.4 percent of time maintaining visual contact with their calves. Despite a strong genetic selection in favour of production and despite the impossibility of displaying the entire behavioural repertoire of the species on farm, dairy cows still have a natural inclination to provide maternal care and tend to dedicate themselves to their offspring soon after parturition if they have the opportunity.