Currently little consideration is given to individuality and social behavior when managing dairy cow groups. This thesis assessed three objectives: 1) Investigating personality in adult lactating cows, 2) comprehensive analysis of social networks in a free-stall barn, 3) facilitating the automated assessment of agonistic behavior. Findings suggest that the level of individuals and the level of social groups should also be taken into account when assessing dairy cattle welfare. The presented automatic method for detecting agonistic behavior and dominance is one important step in this direction.<eng>
