Study on the maternal instinct of Limousin cows

The aim of the study was to examine the maternal instinct of 422 Limousin cows reared in 4 farms in Bulgaria. It comprised the period from 2020 to 2024. The cows included were from their first to their seventh lactation and had different origin in terms of country of birth - Bulgaria, France, Austria and Luxemburg. The animals were extensively farmed. The calvings were group ones on the pasture during the spring season in March and April. The maternal instinct was analysed by means of evaluation following a score from 1 to 5. The Limousin cows had a maternal instinct display score of 3.29 ± 0.14. They are nurturing mothers providing their calves with security, higher survival rates and help with reference to the faster pasture adaptation. The maternal instinct display was significantly influenced by the lactation number (p<0.01), the origin (p<0.05) and the sire (p<0.05). At their first lactation, 38% of the cows showed no anxiety when their calves were subject to manipulations. The cows exhibited a tendency to increase their maternal instinct from first towards third lactation, and afterwards the opposite trend was observed. The cows born in Luxemburg received the highest maternal behavior score, and those born in France: the lowest, with the difference being 1.82. The daughters of 40% of the bulls had scores between 3 and 4. The preferred parameter score is 3, which indicates that the cows have a strong maternal instinct and at the same time are not highly aggressive upon manipulations.