
==== Front
JDS Commun
JDS Commun
JDS Communications
2666-9102
Elsevier

S2666-9102(24)00136-4
10.3168/jdsc.2024-0637
Editorial
Short Communication
JDS Communications special issue: Behavior in Dairy Animals—Introduction
McArt Jessica A.A. Editor in Chief jmcart@cornell.edu
*
Cornell University
* Corresponding author jmcart@cornell.edu
03 9 2024
9 2024
03 9 2024
5 5 367367
17 7 2024
17 7 2024
© 2024.
2024

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
==== Body
pmcBehavior-related dairy cattle research has undergone immense growth over the past quarter century. From assessing feeding behavior (Albright, 1993) to understanding how the environment influences behavior (Cook and Nordlund, 2009) to using behavioral indicators to help quantify welfare (von Keyserlingk and Weary, 2017), researchers have used behavioral indicators as explanatory variables as well as outcomes of interest in a wide range of studies.

However, this has not always been the case. To better understand the trend of behavior research in dairy science, I turned to Scopus (2024; https://www.scopus.com/home.uri) with a simple query for words found in titles, abstracts, or keywords: dairy AND behavior AND cow OR cattle OR calf OR calves. Scopus returned 5,392 results between 1925 and 2024, and the curve is quite astounding (Figure 1). From 1925 to 1970, an average of less than 1 article was published per year. Interest in dairy-related behavior research increased steadily from 1970 through the late 1990s, after which it experienced immense growth, averaging 400 published documents per year across the past 5 years.Figure 1 Line graph showing documents (n = 5,932) published per year between 1925 and 2024 identified via a Scopus (2024) query for titles, abstracts, or keywords including dairy AND behavior AND cow OR cattle OR calf OR calves.

I found 2 review articles of particular interest from the early 1980s, a time when behavior research gained a steady foundation of attention. In a Journal of Dairy Science 75th anniversary issue of the founding of the American Dairy Science Association, Arave and Albright (1981, p. 1318) provided a review on cattle behavior, in which they noted, “Effects of animal behavior now are recognized as an important consideration in experimental design; without it the whole animal is overlooked.” On the ethology side, a review in Applied Animal Ethology by Stricklin and Kautz-Scanavy (1984, p. 359) on the role of behavior in cattle production stated, “This review was intended to demonstrate that emphasis on [the] principles of behavior by persons in traditional animal science disciplines would increase efficiency of production and guide research into more beneficial directions.”

Perhaps we have heeded these recommendations—as the popularity, breadth, and application of behavioral studies have flourished. This special issue provides 29 published articles, ranging from preference studies to social networks, management to pain, and methane emissions to genetics. In addition to the variety of topics, research on dairy behavior has obvious international importance, as we received contributions from authors representing 10 countries.

We hope this wide-ranging collection of articles will provide further insights into the behavior of dairy cattle and highlight the importance of behavior-focused research on the genetics, health, welfare, and production of dairy animals.

I thank Matt Lucy, past editor in chief of JDS Communications, for conceiving this special issue, as well as the authors, reviewers, and editors for their contributions to this collection of articles.

Please let us know your thoughts on this issue, and send your ideas for future special issues to jdsc@adsa.org.
==== Refs
References

Albright J.L. Feeding behavior of dairy cattle J. Dairy Sci. 76 1993 485 498 10.3168/jds.S0022-0302(93)77369-5
Arave C.W. Albright J.L. Cattle behavior J. Dairy Sci. 64 1981 1318 1329 10.3168/jds.S0022-0302(81)82705-1 7276317 7276317
Cook N.B. Nordlund K.V. The influence of the environment on dairy cow behavior, claw health and herd lameness dynamics Vet. J. 179 2009 360 369 10.1016/j.tvjl.2007.09.016 17983785 17983785
Scopus Scopus document search https://www.scopus.com/home.uri 2024
Stricklin W.R. Kautz-Scanavy C.C. The role of behavior in cattle production: A review of research Appl. Anim. Ethol. 11 1984 359 390 10.1016/0304-3762(84)90043-9
von Keyserlingk M.A.G. Weary D.M. A 100-year review: Animal welfare in the Journal of Dairy Science—The first 100 years J. Dairy Sci. 100 2017 10432 10444 10.3168/jds.2017-13298 29153174 29153174
