Enhancing movement opportunity to support behavioral needs for movement-restricted cattle through different...

Intensification in animal production has led to increased indoor confinement for animals, limiting opportunities to meet some behavioral needs such as exploration and locomotion. This poses a crucial question as to how these restrictions can be alleviated by providing additional space designed with that specific purpose in mind. Working with cows housed in tie-stalls, our study aimed to: (1) quantify how providing an exercise area outside the normal housing environment affects locomotor behavior; (2) evaluate how exercise access conditions can contribute to increase locomotor benefits for animals; (3) investigate cows' time budgets during exercise access. Six trials involving different exercise access conditions (indoor vs. outdoor, outing duration, exercise area size, type of ground surface) enrolled 141 tie-stall-housed lactating Holsteins. A meta-analysis compared daily steps for exercise vs. non-exercise treatments, while generalized linear mixed models determined exercise conditions' impact on daily steps. Providing 1-hour exercise access increased daily steps by 53% (304 more steps), influenced by type of access (167 more steps outdoor vs. indoor), larger space (146 more steps) and longer outings (84 more steps). Cows spent 50-85% of exercise time idle, exploring (5-20%) and socializing (5%). Our results highlight the significant impact of 1 h daily exercise on tied cattle.