Rumination behavior of grazing dairy cows in response to restricted time at pasture

The short-term adaptations of cattle behavior to time restrictions at pasture are poorly understood. This study explored the diurnal rumination pattern of dairy cows in response to restrictions to time at pasture. Six groups of eight Holstein-Friesian cows (470 +/- 47 kg, 35 +/- 9 days in milk) were strip-grazed on a perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) pasture over 21 days (2 groups per treatment) for either 4 h after each milking (2 x 4), one period of 8 h between milkings (1 x 8), or 24 h excluding milking times (control, CTL). All cows were equipped with HR Tag (TM) rumination collars which recorded chewing activity and regurgitation of digesta boluses during rumination. Cows in 1 x 8 reduced daily rumination time by 36% compared with cows in 2 x 4 and CTL (304, 402 and 423 SED 26.3 min, respectively). There were no differences in the average intervals between regurgitation of digesta boluses (48.9 +/- 0.96 s) and average interval between chewing actions was also similar (0.7 +/- 0.02 s) between treatments. Treatment affected the diurnal rumination pattern. There was little rumination during the time at pasture for the restricted cows (1 x 8 and 2 x 4), whereas the CTL cows ruminated for almost a third of the time between the am and pm milking. In all treatments, cows ruminated the longest during the night. These results suggest grazing dairy cows modulate their time for rumination to compensate for a reduction in available grazing time. This behavioral study contributes to the understanding of changes in rumination behavior and associated effects in grazing dairy cattle in response to hunger. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.