The energy cost of standing and lying in adult cattle

Abstract

1. Gas exchanges on eleven steers with a mean weight of 273 kg, fasted for 96 h, were obtained over time intervals of 5·76 min in a confinement-type respiration chamber, when the animals were either standing of lying, or engaged in the act of standing or lying.2. In all, 751 observations were analysed and these included twenty-four associated with the act of standing, forty-eight with the act of lying and the remainder approximately equally divided between standing and lying.3. When lying, the heat production was 72·2 kJ (17·2 kcal)/kg fasted weight per 24 h and when standing, 85·7 kJ (20·5 kcal)/kg fasted weight per 24 h; an increase when standing of 18·7%. The double act of standing and lying was associated with an increase in heat production of 11·3 kJ (2·7 kcal)/100 kg fasted weight and while the act of standing was energetically more costly than the act of lying, the difference between the two was not significant.4. The results are discussed in relation to earlier estimates.5. Confinement-type respiration chambers of the type described by Turner & Thornton (1966), which have a fast response time and monitor the changes in chamber air frequently, are ideally suited to the detection of short-term changes in metabolic rate such as occur with changes in posture.