Milking frequency and nutritional level affect grazing behaviour of dairy cows: A case study

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of milking frequency (MF) at two nutritional levels (NL) on grazing behaviour of dairy cows. Animals (n=48) were randomly assigned to one of four treatments from calving in a 2×2 factorial design for an entire lactation: once (OAD) or twice (TAD) a da...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied animal behaviour science 2010-01, Vol.122 (2-4), p.77-83
Main Authors: O’Driscoll, Keelin, O’Brien, Bernadette, Gleeson, David, Boyle, Laura
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
bite rate
Dairies
Dairy cow
dairy cows
duration
feed intake
feeding behavior
feeding level
Grazing
grazing behavior
grazing time
hunger
mastication
Milking frequency
Ruminating
ruminating behavior
rumination
satiety
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Summary:The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of milking frequency (MF) at two nutritional levels (NL) on grazing behaviour of dairy cows. Animals (n=48) were randomly assigned to one of four treatments from calving in a 2×2 factorial design for an entire lactation: once (OAD) or twice (TAD) a day milking at high (herbage allowance: 30.9kg dry matter/cow/day) or low (18.8kg DM/cow/day) NL. Grazing behaviour was recorded using IGER grazing behaviour recorders on three occasions at approximately 95, 157 and 208 days in milk. Data were analysed using the mixed procedure of SAS. OAD cows spent more time grazing than TAD cows (P
ISSN:0168-1591
1872-9045
DOI:10.1016/j.applanim.2009.11.014