Effects of Frequency of Feed Delivery on Dairy Cattle Behavior

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of frequency of feed delivery on time budgets of individuallystalled dairy cows. The experiment was conducted as a 2 x 2 crossover design using 12 Holstein dairy cows randomly assigned to 1 of 2 treatments (n = 6): ad libitum feeding of a total mixed ration (TMR) delivered either 2x or 3x daily in a tie-stall operation. The experiment consisted of two 21-d experimental periods (13 d of adaptation and 8-d data collection periods). During the data collection periods, time-lapse video photography was used to quantify time budgets. Frequency of feed delivery had no effect (P > 0.05)on DMI, milk yield, or time budgets of the dairy cows. These results suggest that as long as feed is available to the cows ad libitum, frequency of feed delivery does not seem to affect time budget.