Chewing and Drinking Activity during Transition Period and Lactation in Dairy Cows Fed Partial Mixed Rations

Abstract

Dairy cows need sufficient physically effective fibre (peNDF) in their diet to induce chewing with the latter stimulating salivation and maintaining rumen health. Thus, monitoring of chewing activity can be a non-invasive tool to assess fibre adequacy, and thus helping in the optimization of the diet. The objective of this study was to investigate and compare chewing activities of cows during transition period and in the course of lactation. Simmental dairy cows, in four different production groups such as dry period (from 8 to 6 weeks ante-calving), calving (24 h before and after calving), early-lactation (7–60 days in milk), and mid-lactation (60–120 days in milk) were used in the study. Cows were fed partial mixed rations supplemented with different amounts of concentrates. The chewing and drinking activity were recorded using rumination-halters (RumiWatch System, Itin+Hoch GmbH, Liestal, Switzerland). Feed data analysis showed that the peNDF content of the partial mixed ration (PMR) was highest during dry period, decreased around parturition, reaching the nadir in the lactation, in all cases, however, exceeding the peNDF requirements. Chewing data analysis showed that rumination time decreased (p < 0.05) in the time around parturition (from 460 min/d during dry period to 363 min/d 24 h before calving) and increased again in early-lactation (505 min/d), reaching a maximum in mid-lactation (515 min/d). Eating time was lowest for cows during early-lactation (342 min/d) and the highest for those in mid-lactation (462 min/d). Moreover, early-lactation cows spent less time (p < 0.05) drinking (8 min/d) compared to other groups (e.g., 24 min/d the day before calving and 20 min/d postpartum). Monitoring of chewing activity might be a useful tool to assess rumen disorder risks and welfare of the cows during the transition period. It further shows promising results to be used as a tool to identify cows that are shortly before calving.

Effect of Feeding Level and Breed on the Daily Activity Budget of Lactating Beef Cows Fed Total Mixed Ration

“…The third major activity was dedicated to feeding the assigned diet. In this study, the time eating the TMR was lower than the observed in dairy cows (30-38 kg of milk yield) in other studies ranging from 3.5 to 7.7 h/day [16][17][18]. However, the dietary supply on dairy cows was also much higher (approximately twice) than in this study.…”

Assessment of feeding, ruminating and locomotion behaviors in dairy cows around calving – a retrospective clinical study to early detect spontaneous disease appearance

“…Indeed, as reported in our previous studies, the combined use of the two devices provides meaningful and accurate information regarding walking, feeding and rumination behaviors in dairy ruminants [18][19][20]. Sick and healthy cows seem to express different levels of activity [21], including parameters such as number of lying bouts [22], time spent lying down [23], length of strides [24], walking speed [24], chewing activity [25] feeding and rumination time [26,27]. Despite the amount of data available continues to increase, clinical consideration that may arise from them and consequently the systems for the early disease detection still show wide margins for improvement [9].…”

Cow’s microbiome from antepartum to postpartum: A long-term study covering two physiological challenges

“…Cows in early lactation require high energy, which goes along with low feed intakes ( Brandstetter et al, 2019 ). Energy density, therefore, has to be increased in the diet leading to an enhanced SCFA production in the rumen ( Laffel, 1999 ; Saleem et al, 2012 ) and a decrease in rumen pH ( via increase of SCFA and lactate; Yang and Beauchemin, 2006 ; Derakhshani et al, 2017 ).…”