The Study of the Behavioural needs of Dairy Cows Across Common Intensive Housing Systems: A Scoping Literature Review
Authors: Catherine Arpin and Rachel Vliet and Marjorie Cellier and Nadège Aigueperse and Marianne Villettaz Robichaud and Abdoulaye Baniré Diallo and Elsa Vasseur
Date: 2026-04-01
Journal: SSRN
Status: Published
Characterizing behavioural needs of farm animals is pivotal in understanding how to build or modify confined environments to satisfy them, a key element of welfare. However, behavioural needs are not well understood, and both their definition and application are inconsistent across the literature, particularly in the case of dairy cows. The objectives of this review are to identify papers that study behavioural needs of dairy cows, identify which needs were studied, how they were studied, and how that changed over time. A scoping review (conducted according to PRISMA guidelines) was completed in 2024 where 11,512 articles were reduced to 144 through a multi-step screening process. Of the remaining articles, only 15% clearly acknowledged the existence of behavioural needs, and there was a lack of consistency in the terms used surrounding this concept. Resting and feeding behaviours were the most studied, as opposed to grooming and exploratory behaviours that were only studied in 16 and 9 articles, respectively. By examining the timeline of when different behavioural categories were studied, it was revealed that the study of behavioural needs in adult dairy cows has evolved greatly in time and was guided by the priorities and the tools available at the time. This review summarises where the concept of behavioural needs fits within the study of dairy cows' welfare, and highlights gaps in the literature. It is imperative that these concepts be better understood and defined in the literature for the study of dairy cow welfare to move forward.