Familiarity influences social networks in dairy cows after regrouping

Regrouping is common practice when managing dairy cow groups, and it known to have disruptive effects on behavior production. The presence of a small group familiar cows upon regrouping may provide social support mitigate some the negative effects. In this study we investigated (1) how affects relationships among (2) if prefer individuals over unfamiliar ones as partners after regrouping. We used 3 established groups create 2 new each containing 14 cows, using subgroups animals (i.e., 4, 6, 4 cows) from original groups. were similar in respect age, parity, sire cows. frequencies grooming displacements determined walking alley, lying stalls, feed bunk by observing 48 h continuous video before regrouping, directly 1 wk later. First, network analysis was applied investigate within Second, more or less connected than would be expected chance assortment), considering displacement, grooming, neighbor networks (derived electronic feeder data) increased number displacements, especially alley. Within resulted slightly but structure did not change. frequency remained stable across all observation periods, affected found positive assortment networks, thereby suggesting that preferred feeding neighbors and, smaller extent, effect familiarity depended pen area. weak at indicated displaced other ones, possibly because they often. Our results ongoing buffering Further research with multiple larger sizes needed determine whether are consistently present subjected