Effect of summer grazing on welfare of dairy cows reared in mountain tie-stall barns

Traditional mountain farms have an important economic, social and environmental role. The Alps management system for dairy cows consists of animals kept indoors from autumn to spring, mostly in tie-stalls, and moved to mountain pasture in summer. The aim of our study was to assess the effect of mountain summer grazing on the welfare of dairy cows housed in tie-stall barns. Twenty-four farms were considered. In twelve of them, animals were reared in tie-stalls and moved to mountain pasture for three months in summer; they were visited three times: (i) four weeks before grazing during the indoor period in the stall; (ii) about three weeks after the start of grazing; and (iii) in the stall, in autumn, at least three weeks after returning from grazing. The other twelve farms kept the animals in tiestalls all year; they were visited once in autumn. Data were collected following a protocol that considers animal-based measures and structure information on the basis of Quality Welfare Consortium ® indications. Data allowed the calculation of both the Animal Needs Index score (ANI 35L) and an overall assessment of the cows' welfare obtained from three general aspects: housing, animal's physical condition, and animal's behaviour. Summer grazing had a significant positive effect on injuries, lameness and animal's rising duration but a negative effect on faeces consistency. Moreover, a reduction of tongue playing was observed. The ANI 35L and the overall assessment did not show significant differences linked to summer grazing, which tended to have a positive but temporary effect on animal behaviour.