cows in stanchions spent 3 h eating and
8 h ruminating each day.
The most intensive research on feeding
behaviour in dairy cattle since the review
by Albright (1993) was reported by Dado
and Allen (1993, 1994). Twelve Holstein
cows (six primiparous) averaging 63 days
in milk were offered a common diet and
monitored for 21-day periods with a con-
tinuous data acquisition system (Dado and
Allen, 1993) to measure feed and water
intake and subsequent chewing activity. It
is important to note that this was a non-
competitive feeding environment with
animals housed in individual tie stalls.
Milk production was correlated positively
with dry matter and water intake within
and across parities. For multiparous cows,
milk production was correlated positively
with meal size (r= 0.78) and length of eating
bouts (r= 0.75), but was unrelated to
number of meals and eating rate, a relation-
ship also observed for non-lactating cows
(Metz, 1975). For primiparous cows, milk
production was related positively to
number of meals (r= 0.55) and eating rate
(r= 0.87) but unrelated to meal size. In
summary, high-producing dairy cows
attained greater feed intake by increasing
meal size and spending less time eating
and ruminating per unit of feed intake.
These observations of Dado and Allen
(1994) suggest that different mechanisms
may be controlling individual meals and
total daily feed intake between cows of
different parity, ruminal capacity and body
size. Behavioural traits of the highly
productive dairy cow include aggressive
eating habits and consumption of large
amounts of high-quality feed. For example,
the dry matter intake achieved by Beecher
Arlinda Ellen ranged from 4.4 to 6.7% of
body weight during the lactation in which
she produced a world record 25,248 kg of
milk in 1 year (Albright, 1981).
Table 17.1 summarizes the milk
production and feeding behaviour data
from the research of Dado and Allen (1993,
1994). The data presented in the table illus-
trate that higher producing cows ate more
total feed, ate larger meals more quickly,
ruminated longer and more efficiently, and
drank more water than lower producing,
primiparous cows.
Primiparous cows eat more slowly
than older cows (Grant and Albright, 1995).
In addition, primiparous cows have a
slower rate of increase in dry matter intake
during the first 5 weeks of lactation (Kertz
et al., 1991). The increased time needed by
younger cows to chew and process feed
should be an important consideration for
group feeding strategies designed to
enhance feeding activity and promote feed
intake. Greater feed availability and
reduced competition at feeding should
increase feed intake for primiparous cows,
especially in early lactation.
Two major questions raised by inten-
sive feeding behaviour research include: (i)
what gives the highly productive cow the
ability to process more feed per unit of
chewing time?; and (ii) do behavioural
relationships observed by Dado and Allen
(1994) differ markedly for animals housed
and fed under competitive feeding situa-
tions? For instance, cows fed in tie stalls
had more eating bouts than those in free
stalls (cubicles), but total eating times were
similar (Grant and Albright, 1995).Social Dominance and Competition
for Feed
When dairy cows are grouped, their social
behaviour modifies feeding activity and
productivity. Cattle are social creatures and
readily form dominance hierarchies,
particularly at the feed bunk (Friend and
Polan, 1974). Social dominance correlates
strongly with age, body size, horns and
seniority in the herd (Grant and Albright,
1995; Albright, 1997) and plays a pivotal
role in any existing, or newly formed,
group of cattle. Social hierarchies and the
competition for feed and water affect feed-
ing behaviour. A highly competitive time at
the feed bunk or manger coincides with
return of cows from milking and when
fresh feed is offered (Friend and Polan,
1974). Early research with small groups of
cows indicated that the maximum effect of
dominance hierarchies and competitionFeeding Behaviour 367