Winter housing conditions of cows of the Hérens breed do not influence fighting but modulate spacing behaviour on alpine pastures

Cows of the Hérens breed are typically kept in small herds and three types of winter housing conditions feature in practical application: tie-barns with minimal winter outdoor exercise, this being taken singly or in pairs (“minimal exercise”), tie-barns with daily exercise as a complete herd (“herd exercise”), and loose housing (“loose housing”). During the summer grazing period, cows from different farms are grouped into bigger herds on alpine pastures. In this study we investigated whether winter housing conditions have an effect on the fighting and spacing behaviour of the cows at the beginning of the alpine pasture period.The study was carried out on five alpine pastures in Switzerland, where we observed a total of 218 horned cows of the Hérens breed from 16 herds altogether. During the first two days of the alpine pasture period, we recorded fighting behaviour. For the next three days, we measured distances between pairs of focal cows to quantify spacing behaviour.Winter housing conditions did not significantly influence fighting rate (p = 0.21) nor the probability that a cow would fight at all (p = 0.12), but both parameters decreased with time after grouping of the cows on the alpine pastures (p < 0.001). Cows with minimal and herd exercise stayed closer to members of their own herd compared to members of another herd, whereas this distance was comparable in cows from loose housing.In conclusion, winter housing conditions did not influence fighting behaviour on alpine pastures in cows of the Hérens breed, but modulated their spacing behaviour in the first week after grouping.