Short communication: Diurnal feeding pattern of lactating dairy cows

The objectives of this research were to: 1) describe the diurnal variation in feed alley attendance patterns of lactating dairy cows, 2) describe the sources of variation in these patterns, and 3) determine the effects of altering the feed push-up schedule on these patterns. An electronic monitoring system was used to record individual cow presence (6-s resolution) at the feed alley for 24 cows housed in a free-stall barn. Cows were subjected to 2 feeding schedules: 1) baseline schedule, where cows were fed at 0600 and 1515 h and feed was pushed closer to the cows at 1100 and 2130 h; and 2) experimental schedule, where 2 additional feed push-ups at 0030 and 0330 h were added to the baseline schedule. With the data collected from the monitoring system, description of the feed alley attendance patterns on a per minute basis of the group of cows was undertaken. Feed alley attendance was consistently higher during the day and early evening compared with the late night and early morning hours. The greatest percentage of cows attending the feed alley was seen after the delivery of fresh feed and the return from milking. The addition of extra feed push-ups in the early morning hours did little to increase feeding activity. It can be concluded that milking and delivery of fresh feed had a much greater affect on the diurnal pattern of feed alley attendance than did the feed push-ups.