Dataset Information

Data on 2341 grass fields from 100 mountain-area dairy farms in France: Agricultural uses and geographical characteristics.

ABSTRACT: This article reports data collected by survey from 100 dairy farmers located in a mountainous area (France), including 72 farmers engaged in the traditional Salers system and 28 farmers engaged in a specialised dairy system. The questionnaire covered all uses of all grass fields during the entire outdoor period, considering 'field' as an area that was used in the same way throughout the entire period. Cutting dates, grazing dates, animal categories and numbers were recorded using a grazing and harvesting schedule. We also recorded key geographical and physical characteristics of each field, i.e. main slope, altitude, area, and distance from the farmstead. Each field in the presented database is thus described by 47 quantitative and qualitative variables.

SUBMITTER: Sibra C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10294003 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Data on 2341 grass fields from 100 mountain-area dairy farms in France: Agricultural uses and geographical characteristics.

Sibra Cécile C Brunschwig Gilles G

Data in brief 20230518

This article reports data collected by survey from 100 dairy farmers located in a mountainous area (France), including 72 farmers engaged in the traditional Salers system and 28 farmers engaged in a specialised dairy system. The questionnaire covered all uses of all grass fields during the entire outdoor period, considering 'field' as an area that was used in the same way throughout the entire period. Cutting dates, grazing dates, animal categories and numbers were recorded using a grazing and h ...[more]

PMID: 37383785

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Project description:Pasture based systems enable cattle to express their natural behavior and are thus expected to provide better welfare than the majority of confinement systems. The aim of this study was to objectively measure locomotion activity of healthy dairy cattle kept on mountain pastures (n = 44) compared with cows kept in cubicle housing systems (n = 38). Selected cows were equipped with a validated 3D-accelerometer on one hind limb, and locomotion behavior was recorded for 48 hours. The 1-hour summaries of the variables lying time, walking time, standing bouts, walking bouts and number of strides were summed up to 24-hour summaries, and the means of the stride distance and stride duration were weighted by the variable number of strides. Mountain pasture cows had higher locomotor activity levels in comparison to cubicle cows. Mountain pasture cows spent less time lying down (528.1±109.5 min/day vs. 693.3±73.8 min/day; P<0.0001) and more time walking (75.6±25.9 min/day vs. 38.8±15.8 min/day; P <0.0001) than cubicle cows. Lying bout duration was longer in cubicle than in mountain pasture cows (90.9± 15.2 min/bout vs. 74.2 ± 21.1 min/bout; P = 0.0001), whilst the number of walking bouts was higher in mountain pasture cows than cubicle cows (199.1 ± 49.1 vs. 123.8 ± 43.8 bouts per day; P < 0.001). Likewise, the number of strides was higher in mountain pasture cows than cubicle cows (2040.5 ± 825.3 vs. 916.7 ± 408.6; P < 0.001). Mountain pasture cows had shorter stride duration (P < 0.0001) and shorter strides (P = 0.0002) than cubicle cows (1.8 ± 0.1 s/stride vs 2 ± 0.2 s/stride and 126.3 ± 18.1 vs 142.1 ± 17.8 m/stride, respectively). In summary, cows kept on mountain pasture were more active and spent longer than 12 hours / day standing. Lying markedly less than 12 hours per day seems to represent the normal behavior of pastured cows searching for fresh grass. This does not cause any obvious damage to the locomotor system as claws of cattle are well adapted to long periods of movement on mountain pastures.

Dataset Information

Data on 2341 grass fields from 100 mountain-area dairy farms in France: Agricultural uses and geographical characteristics.

Publications

Data on 2341 grass fields from 100 mountain-area dairy farms in France: Agricultural uses and geographical characteristics.

Similar Datasets

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