Effects of three different floor types on the posture behavior of semi-intensively reared dairy ewes of the Boutsiko breed

Semi-intensively reared dairy ewes of the Boutsiko breed (n = 45) were equally allocated to three experimental pens when housed indoors (16:00–09:00 h) from late December to early April. Each pen had a different type of floor, namely rammed soil, two-layer soil filter and three-layer soil filter. Floor surface moisture was measured and the resulting sheep posture behavior (i.e. standing or lying) was studied. A 10 h daily cycle (02:00–07:00, 16:00–21:00 h) was used so as to determine sheep postural behavior during two 8-day observation periods for each pen. Rammed soil surface moisture was 3.1 times higher (P < 0.01) than that of the two or three-layer soil filters, which were similar for surface moisture (i.e. 34% vs. 11%, respectively). Overall, this difference had no effect on standing or lying behavior of sheep. However, it did result in more sheep choosing to lie laterally recumbent on rammed soil in an attempt to reduce heat losses to ground due to conduction. Standing and lying increased toward sunrise and sunset, respectively. © 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.