Journal
JOURNAL OF DAIRY SCIENCE
Volume 96, Issue 11, Pages 7088-7092Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC
DOI: 10.3168/jds.2013-7023
Keywords
welfare; Holstein; parturition; dry matter intake
Funding
- Canada's Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (Ottawa, ON, Canada) Industrial Research Chair Program
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The objectives of the current study were to describe changes in rumination and feeding behavior around calving. Rumination time, feeding time, and dry matter intake were monitored in 11 freestall-housed cows from 96 h before to 48 h after calving. Data were summarized in 2-h and 24-h periods, adjusting for calving time. Differences between baseline (96 to 24 h before calving) and subsequent 24-h periods were evaluated. Compared with baseline, cows spent, on average, 63 +/- 30 min/24 h less time ruminating and 66 +/- 16 min/24 h less time feeding in the 24-h period before calving. These behaviors continued to decline during the 24-h period after calving when, compared with baseline, time spent ruminating decreased on average by 133 +/- 35 min/24 h and time spent feeding decreased by 82 +/- 18 min/24 h. Dry matter intake tended to decrease by 3.8 +/- 1.9 kg in the 24-h period before calving but returned to baseline values in the 24-h following calving. Rumination time and time spent feeding started to decline approximately 4 and 8 h before calving, respectively, and increased in the 4 to 6 h following calving. Rumination time and time spent feeding show promise as tools to identify cows close to calving.
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