The relationship between attitudes, personal characteristics and behaviour of stockpeople and subsequent behaviour and production of dairy cows

The relationships amongst attitudes and personal characteristics of stockpeople, their interactions with cows, the behaviour of cows during milking towards humans and average milk yield were investigated on 30 small, family-run dairy farms where cows were housed in a cubicle shed. Several components of the stockperson’s attitude (beliefs, emotions and behavioural intentions) towards characteristics of cows and to behaviour towards cows were measured using a questionnaire. Personal characteristics were assessed using a self-report inventory. Tactile and acoustic behaviour towards the cows was observed during moving and milking. The avoidance distance of cows towards an experimenter was tested in the barn and their flinch/step/kick responses during milking was recorded. Attitude items were reduced, using principal components analysis, to 4 general and 11 behavioural attitude components. Spearman rank correlation and, with milk yield, partial correlations were calculated. The behaviour of stockpeople was strongly correlated with the behaviour of cows and moderately to milk yield: if stockpeople used a high absolute number and percentage of positive interactions and a low number and percentage of negative behaviours, respectively, in the milking parlour, cows avoided humans less ( P