Automated, longitudinal measures of drinking behavior provide insights into the social hierarchy in dairy cows

Abstract

Dairy cows compete for feed and water access on commercial farms. In this study we used EloSteepness to assess the summed Elo winning probabilities (i.e., dominance) of 87 cows housed in a dynamic group and compared the resulting social hierarchies based on their steepness (i.e., the average degree of differences in winning probability between adjacently ranked individuals in the group, ranging from 0 to 1). We identified a hierarchy at the drinker with a steepness of 0.55 ± 0.02 (SD), whereas the hierarchy detected at the feeder during the same time period was 0.45 ± 0.02, indicating smaller dominance differences among cows when competing for feed compared with competing for water. Individual cows' winning probabilities at the feeder and drinker were moderately correlated (rs = 0.55), and cows at the lower and upper ends of the hierarchy showed good agreement. We compared the drinker hierarchy between hot (i.e., temperature-humidity index [THI] ≥72) and normal (i.e., THI <72) periods. The hierarchy steepness was similar in both hot (0.54 ± 0.03) and normal conditions (0.56 ± 0.03), and there was a strong correlation in cows' individual winning probabilities across these periods (rs = 0.87). Cows with higher winning probability visited the drinker less frequently (hot: rs = −0.40, normal: rs = −0.33) but had a higher average daily water intake (hot: rs = 0.38, normal: rs = 0.37). We also found evidence that individual cows' drinking times differ depending on their winning probability; cows with lower winning probability shifted their drinking times to before or after the visit peak after milking. Automatically identifying cows with consistently high or low winning probabilities using drinkers may help inform grouping decisions and water provision on farms.