Using Indices of Cow Comfort to Predict Stall Use and Lameness

Several indices of cow comfort are used on dairy farms including the Cow Comfort Index (CCI) and the Proportion Eligible Lying (PEL) or Stall Usage Index. Targets of >85% for the CCI and >75% for the PEL taken at 1h after return of the cows from the morning milking have been suggested (Overton et al., 2003), but these benchmarks have been derived from very few herds.

The objective of this study was to measure several indices of comfort for one 24 hour period in the high group pens of a selection of Wisconsin dairy herds using either sand ...