The effect of physiological state (lactating or dry) and sward surface height on grazing behaviour and intake by dairy cows

Gibb, M. J.; Huckle, C. A.; Nuthall, R.; Rook, A. J.

doi:10.1016/s0168-1591(99)00014-3

Cited by 90 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…This value is similar to those reported in other studies for non-lactating cattle (Gibb et al 1999;Linnane et al 2001). While there was variation around this mean, it is difficult to attribute it to any factors imposed in the trials.…”

Section: Animal Behavioursupporting

confidence: 89%

“…There was some evidence in Trial 2 that as pasture availability declined over time for the early group, cattle spent more time grazing compared to the late group, where pasture availability was greater. This would be plausible, since intake per bite declines with declining sward height and cattle compensate by increasing grazing time (Gibb et al 1997(Gibb et al , 1999). An increase in grazing time may have been anticipated after the first few days of adaptation to pasture, as cattle adjusted to their new environment.…”

Section: Animal Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Grazing behaviour and weight change of cattle turned out to pasture in spring

Charmley¹,

Jannasch²,

Boyd³

2003

Can. J. Anim. Sci.

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. Grazing behaviour and weight change of cattle turned out to pasture in spring. Can. J. Anim. Sci. 83: 801-808. In the first of two trials, 20 Hereford steers were allocated to two adjacent 1.6-ha pastures on 29 May 1996. Steers in one pasture were given no supplement, while those in the other received supplemental silage each day. All steers on each treatment grazed their allocated paddock continuously for 28 d. Steers on pasture were weighed and their behaviour was monitored periodically throughout the 4 wk of grazing. The dry matter (DM) availability at turnout (651 kg hd -1 ) was considered in excess to requirement, since neither availability nor sward height declined over 28 d. In spite of this, steers lost 15 kg after turnout and took 12 d to regain their initial weight. There were no treatment effects. Nutrient composition of the sward changed in accordance with advancing maturity. Percent of time observed grazing (51%) did not change over the 28-d period; however, rumination time increased from around 10 to 30%. Grazing behaviour was similar for steers on both treatments. Silage intake averaged only 1.3 kg DM hd -1 d -1 . In 1997, 28 yearling steers were used in a 2 × 2 factorial design to study the effect of turnout date to pasture [21 May (E) vs. 4 June (L)] and supplemental silage feeding on weight change, grazing behaviour, pasture productivity and forage quality over 28 d. The DM availability at turnout was 391 kg hd -1 . Available DM and sward height declined in both early and late treatments after turnout. The early group had to be removed from the trial after 16 d when sward height dropped below 4 cm. Sward quality after turnout declined only for the late group. Loss of body weight (BW) and days to regain initial BW after turnout were greater for early versus late steers. Steers ate only 0.5 kg silage DM hd -1 d -1 , but this reduced weight loss in late steers. Cattle turned out later spent less time grazing (P < 0.001 at 5 and 14 d) but no less time ruminating. Transient weight loss associated with turnout to pasture cannot be wholly explained by behavioural patterns. Other factors, such as altered ruminal conditions, must also play an important role. Can. J. Anim. Sci. 83: 801-808. Dans le premier de deux essais, le 29 mai 1996, on a placé 20 bouvillons Hereford dans deux pâturages adjacents de 1,6 ha. Seul les animaux du second pâturage ont reçu quotidiennement un supplément d'ensilage. Dans les deux cas, on a laissé les animaux brouter à satiété l'herbe de leur enclos pendant 28 jours. On a pesé et surveillé le comportement des animaux périodiquement durant les quatre semaines de paissance. La quantité de matière sèche disponible à la mise à l'herbe (651 kg par tête) dépassait les besoins des animaux, puisqu'au terme des 28 jours, ni les stocks ni la hauteur des graminées n'avaient diminué. Malgré cela, les animaux ont perdu 15 kg à la mise à l'herbe et il leur a fallu 12 jours pour retrouver leur poids original. Le temps passé à paître (51 %) n'a pas varié au cours des 28 jours, mais celui ...

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Section: Animal Behavioursupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Animal Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grazing behaviour and weight change of cattle turned out to pasture in spring

Charmley¹,

Jannasch²,

Boyd³

2003

Can. J. Anim. Sci.

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“…The estimated bite mass was higher for treatment 4 h than for the other treatments, although the sward height was identical in all treatments. The large sward height supports the potential for an increased bite mass (Gibb et al, 1999) as well as the effect of hunger, as stated by Patterson et al (1998). This is further underlined by the fact that the bite mass estimated in treatments 6.5 h and 9 h is lower than in studies with similar sward height (McGilloway et al, 1999;Pulido and Leaver, 2001).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 59%

“…The proportion of time used actively grazing is reduced at a high herbage allowance (Gibb et al, 1999), and as shown by Patterson et al (1998) the timing of indoor feeding may also affect the activity, at least during the first part of the pasture period.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of time at pasture combined with restricted indoor feeding on production and behaviour in dairy cows

Kristensen¹,

Oudshoorn²,

Munksgaard³

et al. 2007

Animal

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Extremely high nutrient loads have been reported in grazed grassland regimes compared with cutting regimes in some dairy systems that include the use of supplemental feeding. The aim of this study was, therefore, to investigate the effects on productivity and behaviour of high-yielding dairy cows with limited access to indoor feed and restriction in the time at pasture in a continuous stocking system. During a 6-week period from the start of the grazing season 2005, an experiment was conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of restrictive indoor feeding combined with limiting the time at pasture on the productivity and behaviour of high-yielding dairy cows (31.0^5.4 kg energy-corrected milk) in a system based on continuous stocking. The herd was split into three groups allocated to three treatments consisting of 4, 6.5 and 9 h at pasture, respectively. Each group of cows grazed in separate paddocks with three replicates and was separately housed in a cubicle system with slatted floor during the rest of the day. All cows were fed the same amount of supplement, adjusted daily to meet the ad libitum indoor intake of the cows at pasture for nine hours. The herbage allowance was 1650 kg dry matter (DM) per ha, and the intake of supplemental feed was 9.1 kg DM per cow daily. The limitation of the time at pasture to 4 h in combination with restrictive indoor feeding reduced the daily milk, fat and protein yield and live weight compared with 9 h of access to pasture. The proportion of time during which the cows were grazing while at pasture increased from 0.64 to 0.86 and the estimated herbage intake per h at pasture decreased from 2547 g DM to1398 g DM, when time at pasture changed from 4 to 9 h. It can be concluded, that in systems with a high herbage allowance, the cow was able to compensate for 0.8 of the reduction in time at pasture by increasing the proportion of time spent grazing and presumably also both the bite rate and mass, although the latter two have not been directly confirmed in the present study.

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“…The factors affecting intake rate in grazing cattle have been extensively studied, mainly on the short-term scale. In addition to factors related to sward structure such as sward height, herbage mass, bulk density and proportion of stem and pseudostem (McGilloway and Mayne, 1996;Prache and Peyraud, 1997), animal factors such as physiological state, animal nutritional requirements and fasting duration have been shown to affect intake rate at pasture (Chilibroste et al, 1997;Patterson et al, 1998;Gibb et al, 1999). However, little is known about the effect of restricting time at pasture on the performance, daily intake and feeding behaviour of dairy cows.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Herbage intake and behavioural adaptation of grazing dairy cows by restricting time at pasture under two feeding regimes

Pérez-Ramírez

Delagarde

Delaby

2008

Animal

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The time at pasture of dairy cows is often restricted in the context of extending the grazing season in autumn or at the end of winter. The objective of our study was to evaluate the effects of a restriction of time at pasture on milk production, herbage intake and feeding behaviour in dairy cows according to feeding regime. The four treatments consisted of 4 h or 8 h of time at pasture per day tested under two feeding regimes combining rate of supplementation and herbage allowance: either a high rate of supplementation (10 kg dry matter (DM) of a maize silage-soya bean meal mixture in the ratio 87 : 13 on a % DM basis) with a low herbage allowance (6 kg DM/cow per day above 5 cm), or a low rate of supplementation (5 kg DM of the same supplement) with a high herbage allowance (11 kg DM/cow per day). The study was carried out according to a 4 × 4 Latin square design with four 2-week periods, with 48 mid-lactation Holstein cows. The cows in the 4-h treatment had access to pasture from 0900 h to 1300 h and those in the 8-h treatment from 0900 h to 1700 h. The supplement was given at 1830 h. When time at pasture was reduced from 8 h to 4 h per day, herbage intake decreased (9.9 v. 8.1 kg DM, P < 0.001), along with a fall in milk production (22.3 v. 21.2 kg, P < 0.001) and milk protein concentration (30.1 v. 29.6 g/kg, P < 0.001), while milk fat concentration increased (39.4 v. 39.9 g/kg, P < 0.05). The effect of time at pasture on milk production was slightly more marked on the low-supplement feeding regime (interaction P < 0.06). Reducing time at pasture by 4 h led to a sharp decrease in grazing time (327 v. 209 min, P < 0.001), but strongly increased the pasture intake rate (31 v. 39 g DM/min, P < 0.001) and the proportion of time spent grazing (0.68 v. 0.87, P < 0.001). Cows showed a stronger motivation for grazing when receiving the low-supplement feeding regime. In conclusion, we showed that reducing time at pasture from 8 to 4 h for cows receiving 5 to 10 kg DM of a maize silage-based supplement decreased moderately milk production and herbage intake, because of the capacity for behavioural adaptation by the grazing dairy cows.

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The effect of physiological state (lactating or dry) and sward surface height on grazing behaviour and intake by dairy cows

Cited by 90 publications

References 20 publications

Grazing behaviour and weight change of cattle turned out to pasture in spring

Grazing behaviour and weight change of cattle turned out to pasture in spring

Effect of time at pasture combined with restricted indoor feeding on production and behaviour in dairy cows

Herbage intake and behavioural adaptation of grazing dairy cows by restricting time at pasture under two feeding regimes

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