Impact of elastic stall partitions on tied dairy cows' behaviour and stall cleanliness

Without partitions more urine (p < 0.05) and faeces (p < 0.05) landed on the neighbouring cow's stall and the time standing 45 degrees to the manger was longer (p < 0.01), whereas the time standing 90 degrees to the manger was shorter (p < 0.01). Without partitions three out of the 16 cows were standing and three were lying parallel to the manger. Presence or absence of partitions did not influence the total lying time per 24 h. Cows with the X-partition defecated more seldom in neighbouring stalls than cows with the I-partition (p < 0.01). It is concluded that without partitions between tied animals more eliminations on neighbouring stalls and more deviations from the 90 degrees position in relation to the manger occurred. This seems to be the first experimental study of how partitions influence the behaviour of tied cattle and the results support the general advice that tied cattle should have partitions. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.