Variation among pregnant, non‐lactating dairy cows in eating and ruminating behaviour, digestibility and voluntary intake of hay

Abstract

The variation between non-lactating British Friesian cows in eating and ruminating pattern, digestibility and voluntary intake of hay were measured about 4 weeks before calving. Among fourteen of the cows the daily duration of eating ranged from 214 to 462 min and rumination from 410 to 599 min with CV of 20 and 14 respectively. Daily hay intake varied between cows from 5-93 to 11 • 18 kg dry matter (DM) with a CV of 14. The mean digestibility coefficient of organic matter measured in nineteen cows was 0-57 + 0 014 s.d. and of cellulose 0 70 + 0 013 s.d. Intake of hay and cellulose digestibility were correlated (r = 0-51, P<0-05). There was a positive correlation between hay intake and duration of eating (r=0-64, P<00\) but not between intake of hay and rate of eating. Daily time spent ruminating per kg hay DM eaten was negatively correlated with hay intake (r = 0-66, P<00\). It is concluded that variation between cows in chewing time and in digestibility of cellulose may be important factors related to variation between cows in voluntary intake of hay.

Rumination and its relationship to feeding and lying behavior in Holstein dairy cows

“…Across cows, we observed no correlation between daily rumination times and daily DMI or lying time. The high degree of variation in DMI and time spent ruminating between and within cows and days (Welch, 1982;Harb and Campling, 1985;Dado and Allen, 1994) may have affected our findings. We did, however, note a negative correlation between daily rumination time and feeding time, suggesting that the cows that ruminate more spent less time feeding.…”

Suitability of feeding and chewing time for estimation of feed intake in dairy cows

“…Feed intake was continued in most cases within a smaller time frame. Minimum interbout intervals (MIBI) between feeding bouts were set to 2 min (Harb and Campling, 1985) and 7.5 min (Dado and Allen, 1994) in former studies. Although the MIBI in the current study was shorter than in Dado and Allen (1994), the number of bouts per day was lower in the present study (9.7 bouts/ day) compared with Dado and Allen (1994) (11.0 bouts/day).…”

Invited review: Large-scale indirect measurements for enteric methane emissions in dairy cattle: A review of proxies and their potential for use in management and breeding decisions

“…Rumination patterns and duration affect particle breakdown and colonization in the rumen and so have important effects on rumen fermentation (Harb and Campling, 1985;Schirmann et al, 2012), opening up the possibility of using rumen motility as proxy for CH 4 emissions. The potential association between rumination time and CH 4 emissions has been largely unexplored until recently.…”