ACCORDING to weather lore, when cows lie down it’s a sure sign of impending
rain. But researchers in Sweden have now shown that it has more to do with how
often they are milked.
Sara Österman and Ingrid Redbo of the Swedish University of Agricultural
Sciences in Uppsala filmed a high-yield dairy herd. In the early morning, cows
milked twice a day spent half as long lying down as cows milked three times a
day (Applied Animal Behaviour Science, vol 70, p 167).
Cows with a high yield that are milked infrequently may have more difficulty
lying down and…
