Abstract
Dairy cow welfare is shaped by multiple factors, notably the interaction between cattle breed,feeding, and housing conditions. This study evaluated welfare indicators—avoidance behaviour,lameness, body condition score (BCS), cleanliness, integument alterations, udder health, andclaw health—in 2168 cows across mountain dairy farms using tie-stall and free-stall housing,with grazing and non-grazing systems. Holstein Friesian (HF) consistently showed poorer welfareoutcomes, with significantly higher avoidance behaviour (47.2%), integument alterations (62.1%),and dirty spots (47.6%) compared to dual-purpose and local breeds (p < 0.05). Alpine Grey (AG)and Simmental (SI) cows generally performed better, especially under tie-stall and grazing condi-tions. In free-stalls, HF exhibited elevated avoidance behaviour (b ¼ 0.55 vs. AG, p ¼ 0.008;b ¼ 0.60 vs. Brown Swiss [BS], p ¼ 0.005) and lameness (b ¼ 0.92 vs. AG, p < 0.001; b ¼ 1.02 vs.BS, p < 0.001). Similar trends were observed in tie-stalls and grazing systems. AG consistentlyachieved the best welfare scores, particularly under tie-stall and grazing conditions. BS per-formed well overall but showed slightly poorer claw health than AG (b ¼ 0.25–0.30, p < 0.01). Nosignificant breed differences were found for udder health, underscoring the importance of milk-ing hygiene and management across breeds. These findings emphasize the importance of align-ing breed selection with suitable housing and feeding systems to optimize welfare, especially inmountain dairy farms, which often operate under challenging climatic and topographic condi-tions compared to lowland farms.