Forty Finnish Ayrshire cows, 16 primiparous and 24 multiparous, were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 treatments (FF1 or FF5). Total mixed ration (TMR) was fed once a day on the FF1 treatment and 5 times a day on the FF5 treatment. The experiment began at calving and continued to wk 28 of lactation. The TMR consisted of a grass silage and concentrate mix. The amount of concentrate in the TMR was 51% on a DM basis. The feeding frequency had no effect on milk or energy-corrected milk yields or on milk composition. The average energy-corrected milk yield was 32.8 kg/d on the FF1 treatment and 32.5 kg/d on the FF5 treatment. The less frequent feeding increased the dry matter intake (DMI) of cows. The average DMI during the experiment was 20.9 kg/d on the FF1 treatment and 19.9 kg/d on the FF5 treatment. The difference in DMI was due to the differences in DMI of the mature cows. Energy and protein conversion tended to be lower with feeding once a day compared with feeding 5 times a day. The cows' feeding behavior was also observed. Cows fed 5 times a day tended to eat quite evenly after each delivery, whereas on the FF1 treatment there were 2 clear feeding peaks in the evening after the feed delivery. The time spent eating during the observation period was longer on FF5 than on FF1. The cows fed once a day spent more time lying than the cows fed 5 times a day. Based on the observations of feeding behavior, feeding a TMR 5 times a day seemed to be too frequent based on the increased restlessness and decreased lying time of the cows.

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Little information is available concerning the effects of offering additional concentrates with total mixed ration (TMR) on milk production. The aim of the present study was to compare TMR representing simplified feeding (TMR1) with TMR combined with a decreasing amount of additional concentrate (TMR2C). Finnish Ayrshire cows (39) were housed in a loose housing barn. TMR1 consisted of a mixed ration of grass silage (0.49) and concentrates (0.51). In TMR2C, the same grass silage and concentrate were mixed in a ratio of 55:45. In TMR2C, cows were offered additional concentrates from automatic feeders differing in composition from the concentrate in TMR1 [6.5 kg d -1 (first 100 days, Phase 1), 3.0 kg d -1 (subsequent 50 days, Phase 2) and no concentrate thereafter (Phase 3)]. During the whole experiment (224 days), total consumption of concentrates per cow averaged 2426 kg dry matter (TMR1) and 2414 kg dry matter (TMR2C). There were no significant differences in mean total dry matter, metabolizable energy, crude protein or absorbed amino acid intakes. During Phase 2, total intake of all cows fed TMR2C was one kg lower (P = 0.10) than for cows fed TMR1. This was due to differences in total feed intake of multiparous cows. Average yields (kg d -1 ) of milk, energy corrected milk, protein, fat and lactose were not significantly different between diets. During Phase 2, primiparous cows tended to produce more energy corrected milk on TMR2C than on TMR1. The results showed that both TMR1 and TMR2C were equal feeding strategies for early lactating cows and cows did not benefit from greater concentrate consumption in early stage of lactation when total consumption of concentrates was similar.Key words: dairy cows, concentrates, grass silage, total mixed ration, milk yield, feed intake IntroductionDuring the EU membership since 1995 the number of Finnish farms has fallen, but the average size has increased (Niemi and Ahlstedt 2003). Considering the housing of cows, loose housing is currently often the housing type used in Finland in production units of 50-60 cows or more. Mixing concentrates and silage in a total mixed A G R I C U L T U R A L A N D F O O D S C I E N C EVol. 15 (2006): 268-279. ration (TMR) or feeding silage and concentrates separately are both commonly used feeding strategies on dairy farms. In free stall barns, separate concentrate feeding has been accomplished using automatic computerised concentrate feeders (Maltz et al. 1992, Yan et al. 1998, Yrjänen et al. 2003.In the case of TMR feeding the farm manager decides whether to use one TMR for the whole milking herd or to prepare multiple TMRs (having e.g. high and medium nutrient concentrations) for several groups of cows. In Finland, multiple TMRs and grouping of cows are difficult because of the relatively small herd sizes on farms. Therefore, one TMR for all milking cows would be a practical feeding strategy. Recently, Mäntysaari et al. (2004) reported that feeding fixed or decreasing proportions of concentrates in the TMR to primiparous cows durin...