Qualitative behavioural assessment shows individual variation suggestive of affective state changes in early lactation dairy cows
Emily F. Craven, Jorge Alberto Vázquez-Diosdado, Jasmeet Kaler, Alison Russell, Martin J. Green, Jake S. Thompson · 2026
Read Qualitative behavioural assessment shows individual variation suggestive of affective state changes in early lactation dairy cows by Emily F. Craven, Jorge Alberto Vázquez-Diosdado, Jasmeet Kaler, Alison Russell, Martin J. Green, Jake S. Thompson (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13318761.txt.
Description
Emily F. Craven and colleagues present a 2026 study of mood signs in freshly calved dairy cows. Qualitative behavioural assessment judges a whole animal's posture and behaviour. It usually rates herds, not individuals. The team tested whether daily scoring could track single cows over time.
Thirty-five cows were assessed after calving, for a mean of 12 days each. Scores were gathered in group settings and individually. Statistical patterns split into an agitated dimension and a playful, inquisitive one. Both shifted as days in milk increased. One pattern fell with a slope of −0.22 per day in their model. Twenty cows clustered into stable or shifting profile types. The authors suggest individual scoring could flag welfare changes, even with less frequent checks.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Emily F. Craven, Jorge Alberto Vázquez-Diosdado, Jasmeet Kaler, Alison Russell, Martin J. Green, Jake S. Thompson |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 41929 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |