Abstract

In dairy cattle, bedding and its management contribute predominantly to the comfort of the cow, udder health and milk quality. The aim of the study is to assess the effect of different bedding materials such as rubber mats, coir pith, dried solid manure and concrete floor on milk yield and milk cortisol concentration in Holstein Friesian crossbred dairy cows.A total number of 24 Dairy cattle were grouped in to four via control group T1- maintained in concrete floor without any bedding materials, T2- rubber mats of 1.2 m × 1.8 m × 0.025m area were provided on concrete floor,T3 coir pith and T4 Dried solid manure (DSM) on concrete floor. The study was carried out for an entire lactation which spread over three different seasons.In those cows maintained on concrete floor, skim milk cortisol concentration was significantly lower (P<0.01) at the beginning (13.05 ± 0.88)and increased (24.48 ± 1.48pg/mL) at the end of summer season. The same trend was found at the beginning and end of both monsoon and post monsoon season.The cortisol concentration in the skim milk of cows reared on rubber mats also significantly increased (P<0.01) at the end (23.75 ± 1.41) than beginning (16.44 ± 1.04pg/mL)of summer season. Similar pattern was noted in the other two seasons. Whereas, the cortisol concentration of cows reared on coir pith got reduced (P<0.01) from 11.42 ± 0.39 at the beginning to 06.87 ± 0.57 pg/mL at the end of summer season with significant difference (P<0.01) between them and same pattern followed in monsoon and post monsoon.The cows maintained on concrete floor had the lowest overall daily milk yield (8.66 ± 0.22) while the cows on coir pith had the highest yield (9.98 ± 0.30 kg). 

Keywords : Crossbred cows-bedding systems-skim milk cortisol-milk yield