Location of handling and dairy cows' responses to people

Dairy cattle sometimes do not generalize a learned aversion to a handler from one location to another. In experiment 1, we examined whether dairy cows ( n = 24) could learn to avoid handlers in one location but approach them in another location. Each cow was treated seven times, both in their home stall and in a special treatment stall, by one person. In one stall, the cows were treated aversively, while in the other stall, the same person treated them gently. During a 1-min test session, the distance the cow kept from the treatment person was scored every 5 s and the mean score calculated. Before treatments, the cows stood farther from the person in the novel treatment stall than in the home stall. After treatments, the cows stood farther from the person in the stall where they had been treated aversively than in the stall where they had been handled gently. However, this was complicated by the greater distance kept in the treatment stall than in the home stall. Distance scores were only weakly correlated between stalls, and before and after treatments. In experiment 2, a further 12 cows were treated aversively or gently 11 times by one person in two different treatment stalls. The cows stood farthest from the person in the stall where they had been handled aversively, and tended to stand farther from an unfamiliar person in the stall where they had been handled aversively. Dairy cows can readily learn to avoid or approach the same person based on the location. Measures of cattle's temperament based on distances kept may not be reliable because such distances depend on location and previous handling. One way to reduce the extent that cows develop fear of their handlers, as a result of aversive management procedures, may be to apply these procedures outside the cows' home stalls.