Ability to estimate feed intake from feeding time, chewing and rumination activity

The feeding and rumination behaviour of dairy cows can be monitored by different techniques and can provide useful information for dairy herd management. Among feeding characteristics, individual feed intake of cows is of utmost interest, but as weighing troughs have high space and cost requirements their implementation is limited to the research area. The objective of the present study was to monitor feeding time (by feeding trough), chewing and rumination time (by pressure sensor) and to analyse their ability for estimation of feed intake in dairy cows. The feeding and chewing behaviour of seven cows was recorded on six to eight measuring days per cow. Feeding and chewing behaviour was evaluated in time slots (1 min) and additionally assigned to feeding bouts for further analysis. Overall cows, 92.2% of the recorded one-min time slots were classified concordantly as feeding and chewing activities by the two systems. On average, cows spent 270 +/39 min per day at the feeding troughs and chewed 262 +/48 min per day. The average feed intake was 49.6 +/5.1 kg per day. Feeding time per day was divided into 9.7 bouts during which cows fed 27.8 +/21.7 min per bout and chewed 27.0 +/23.1 min per bout. The correlation between fresh matter intake and feeding time was 0.891 and between fresh matter intake and chewing time 0.780 overall cows. Hence, both systems delivered useful indicators for estimation of feed intake.