Alexandra Green
University of Sydney, Australia
Cowmunication: Decoding cow vocalisations and applications for on-farm welfare assessment
Despite the potential applications for welfare assessment, the information encoded in cattle vocalisations remains underexplored. Accordingly, vocalisations of Holstein-Friesian dairy cows were recorded in a variety of free-ranging and commercial dairy farming contexts, such as during feeding time, oestrus, separation from peers, the birthing process, as well as upon calf bonding and separation. The acoustic features of these vocalisations and the accompanying behaviours of cows were analysed. Key findings of this work included that: (1) cattle have individually distinct voices and can maintain this individuality across positive and negative farming contexts; and (2) there are context-specific differences in their vocal features likely relating to their different emotions or motivations. This work enhances our understanding of both the stable and changing information content of cattle vocalisations and demonstrates the feasibility of assessing certain vocal features in the commercial farming environment, where the soundscape may be noisy. This work may also encourage farmers to modify husbandry practices according to the vocal feedback of their cows, highlighting the opportunity to vocally assess cow welfare by visual and auditory means.
Alexandra Green is a postdoctoral researcher in the Sydney School of Veterinary Science, at the University of Sydney. She recently finished a PhD in cattle vocal communication where she explored the static and dynamic information content of Holstein-Friesian dairy cow vocalisations that were emitted in a range of farming situations. She is extremely passionate about animals and an advocate for good animal welfare practices. She hopes that her research will allow for novel, non-invasive measures of welfare state in individual animals.
