DOI: 10.25338/b81d19
title: Data from: Breed differences in oral behaviors in feed-restricted dairy heifers

description: Holsteins and Jerseys, the 2 most prominent dairy breeds in the United
 States, differ in many regards. They have not been evaluated for
 differences in oral behavior performance, despite anecdotal evidence that
 Jerseys perform more abnormal behaviors than Holsteins. As abnormal
 behaviors can indicate compromised welfare, we evaluated whether breed
 differences existed in year-old heifers. Because many oral behaviors could
 be expressed in abnormal ways, we also sought to describe performance of a
 wide range of behaviors and whether these varied among individuals. We
 studied 42 pair-housed heifers (33 Holstein, 9 Jersey) at 12.8 ± 1.1 mo of
 age (mean ± SD) that were restricted to 50% of their ad libitum total
 mixed ration (TMR) intake for 2 d as part of a short-term feed challenge.
 Using continuous video recording from 0800 to 2000 h on the
 second day of feed restriction, we scored time spent performing tongue
 rolling, tongue flicking, selfgrooming, allogrooming, intersucking,
 drinking urine, drinking water, and nonnutritive oral manipulation (NNOM)
 of rice hull bedding, the feed bin, or other pen fixtures. Eating TMR as
 recorded at 5-min intervals. We found that Jerseys spent more time tongue
 rolling (3.3% vs. 0.2% proportion of 12-h observations) and performing all
 types of NNOM than Holsteins (feed bin: 3.8% vs. 2.4%; bedding:
 7.7% vs. 5.4%; other: 7.5% vs. 4.2%; total: 19.0% vs. 12.0%), and tended
 to spend more time tongue flicking (1.4% vs. 1.1%). Jerseys spent less
 time allogrooming than Holsteins (1.3% vs. 3.4%). There was no evidence of
 an effect of breed on self-grooming (2.0%), water drinking (1.0%), eating
 TMR (16.0%), or intersucking (0.06%). Urine drinking was performed by 9
 total heifers and was not compared between breeds. All behaviors were
 highly variable across individuals, particularly tongue rolling and
 intersucking. Allogrooming was more variable than self-grooming, and each
 subcategory of NNOM was more variable than total NNOM. Outliers, or
 extreme performance of oral behaviors relative to the rest of our
 population, were present in most behaviors. Heifers who were outliers in
 one behavior were not consistently outliers in all. Overall,
 there are breed differences in many oral behaviors in a feed-restricted
 environment. Despite no difference in proportion of time spent eating,
 Jerseys often performed higher levels of potentially abnormal behaviors
 than Holsteins, though both breeds performed many oral behaviors,
 sometimes at extreme levels, that may indicate a concern.
description: The methods are described in the associated research
 publication. 
description: # Data from: Breed differences in oral behaviors in feed-restricted dairy
 heifers [Access this dataset on Dryad](https://doi.org/10.25338/B81D19)
 Data were collected from 42 dairy heifers (Jerseys, n=9; Holsteins, n=33)
 that were approximately 13 mo old to evaluate whether there were breed
 differences in oral behaviors. Heifers were feed-restricted a total mixed
 ration (TMR) at 50% of their previous intake, similar to limit-feeding
 used on farm, for 2 d. On d 2 of this restriction, oral behavior (drinking
 water, drinking urine, intersucking, allogrooming, self-grooming, tongue
 rolling, tongue flicks, and non-nutritive manipulation of non-feed items)
 was scored continuously from 08:00-20:00. Eating was evaluated during this
 same period at 5-min scans. ## Description of the data and file structure
 * *LFiH_Behavior proportion data by breed.csv*; This file presents oral
 behavior data from all 42 heifers ("ID" column) and identifies
 them as Jerseys or Holsteins ("Breed" column). Behavior was
 scored from 08:00-20:00 on d 2 of a 2-d feed restriction. Time spent out
 of view was excluded, generating a proportion of time in view engaged in
 each behavior during the 12-h observation ("In view" column).
 Drinking water, drinking urine, intersucking, allogrooming ("groom:
 allo"), self-grooming, ("groom: self"), tongue rolling,
 tongue flicks, and non-nutritive oral manipulation of bedding ("NNOM:
 bedding"), feed bins ("NNOM: feed bin"), and other pen
 structures ("NNOM: other") were scored continuously and are
 presented as a proportion of time in view from 08:00-20:00. The column
 labeled “NNOM: Total” is “NNOM.bedding” + “NNOM.feed.bin” + “NNOM.other”
 to represent the total amount of time in view engaged in any non-nutritive
 manipulation. Eating was evaluated at 5-min scans and is reported as
 proportion of the total 12-h period, as "out of view" did not
 affect this behavior. * *Supplemental Table.pdf*; This file presents a
 supplemental table ("Supplemental Table S1. Behavior model
 outputs") presenting the raw means, SE, and 95% CI for all oral
 behaviors scored, along with model outputs. * *LFiH_Heifer breed
 differences models and figures.Rmd*; This RMarkdown file uses the .csv
 data file listed above to build and validate all models to describe breed
 differences in behavior and produce the figures used in the corresponding
 paper. The Rmd file can be downloaded and run in R, and is annotated. *
 *LFiH_Heifer breed differences models and figures.pdf*; This file is the
 PDF output of the corresponding RMarkdown file, and includes the code and
 output previews. This file is annotated. ## Code/Software All analyses
 were run in R using RStudio. Software versions, including those for all
 packages used, are included in *LFiH_Heifer breed differences models and
 figures.Rmd* and the associated PDF export.