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 < 0.01). Higher use of neutral (moderate use of the hand, moderately loud vocalisations, using a stick gently) behaviours was related to more stepping/kicking of cows during milking and a lower milk yield (P < 0.05). According to the results, attitudes and personal characteristics are important determinants of stockperson-cow interactions and production success. Several behavioural attitude components correlated significantly with stockperson behaviour (P < 0.01 to P < 0.05) and milk yield (P < 0.05). General attitudes showed limited correlations with human behaviour, but correlated strongly with behavioural attitudes (P < 0.01 to P < 0.05). Personal characteristics were related to the attitudes as well as to the behaviour of stockpeople (P < 0.05 to P < 0.01); stockpeople high on agreeableness used more positive interactions and less neutral ones (P < 0.05), while pessimists were low on positive attitudes to cows. In sum, results indicate a strong influence of the stockperson's attitudes and personal characteristics on the behaviour of the stockperson and subsequently on the cows' fear of humans, behaviour and milk yield. Results suggest that milk yield is lower on farms where stockpeople have negative attitudes towards interacting with cows during milking and use more neutral behaviours. The main attitude components responsible for positive and negative behaviour were identified, and this new measures of attitude and personal characteristics proved to be good predictors of stockperson behaviour. This is encouraging with respect to possibilities for improving human-animal interactions on small dairy farms by changing the relevant attitudes and behaviour of the stockpeople and subsequently to improve animal welfare and production. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.