A quantitative analysis of social behaviour of different crossbreds of dairy cattle kept in loose housing and its relationship to productivity

The social behaviour of Polish Black-and-White dairy cattle (BW) was compared with that of the F₁-crossbreds of BW with Jersey (BW × J), Ayrshire (BW × Ay), Holstein-Friesian (BW × HF) and Swedish Black-and-White (BW × SLB). The ethological observations were made under conditions of loose housing.The crossbreds BW × J proved to be most aggressive, excitable and susceptible, as far as milk yield was concerned, to the social tensions connected with moving cows between groups. The BW × Ay were most dominant, least attacked by their group-mates and least susceptible to a group change. The pure-bred BW were calm and subordinate as compared with the crossbreds.The social tensions after a group change caused a mean decrease in milk yield of about 4%. There was a low correlation between the parameters of social behaviour and physical or production traits. The dominance relationships based on spontaneous aggressive interactions differed slightly from those based on interactions motivated by feeding.