Impact of dairy cow personality traits on response to extended milking intervals and removal of supplemental concentrate in a free-traffic automated milking system.

Provision of supplemental concentrate in an automated milking system (AMS) is commonly used to encourage voluntary attendance, however, the motivation to voluntarily milk is highly variable between cows. The objectives of this study were to determine if dairy cow personality is associated with: 1) their short-term response to changes in factors believed to motivate voluntary AMS visits such as udder pressure and provision of supplemental feed (modulated by longer milking intervals or removal of AMS concentrate, respectively); and 2) their milking activity, production, and feeding behavior after returning to pre-treatment AMS milking interval and concentrate feed settings (i.e.

The effects of dietary cation-anion difference and dietary buffer for lactating dairy cattle under mild heat stress with night cooling.

The objective of this study was to investigate the interactive effect of DCAD and dietary buffer supply on DMI, ruminal fermentation, milk and milk component yields, and gastrointestinal tract (GIT) permeability in lactating dairy cattle exposed to mild heat stress. A total of 16 lactating Holstein cows, including 8 ruminally cannulated primiparous (80 ± 19.2 DIM) and 8 noncannulated multiparous (136 ± 38.

Severity of rolling reconstituted high-moisture barley on ensiling characteristics and in vitro ruminal fermentation.

Barley grain sources with variable kernel sizes makes adequate and consistent processing of kernels challenging. This study evaluated how the severity of processing for reconstituted high-moisture (65% on DM basis) barley (RHB) affects ensiling characteristics and in vitro ruminal fermentation. Three independent sources of light (<630 g/500 mL) and heavy (>670 g/500 mL) barley were blended to create 4 sources of variable kernel sized barley (646 g/500 mL).

Validation of an in vivo dual permeability marker technique to characterize regional gastrointestinal tract permeability in mid-lactation Holstein cows during short-term feed restriction.

This study evaluated the effects of short-term feed restriction in lactating dairy cows on regional permeability of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT), and the recovery of DMI, ruminal pH, and milk yield. In addition, sampling methods for a novel dual marker technique to characterize total GIT and post-ruminal permeability were validated. Six ruminally cannulated lactating Holstein cows were blocked by parity (3 primiparous, 3 multiparous; 189 DIM ± 25.

Effect of dairy cow personality traits and concentrate allowance on their response to training and adaptation to an automated milking system.

The objectives of this study were to determine: (1) if dairy cow personality traits and concentrate allowance are associated with the behavior and performance of cows during training to use an automated milking system (AMS); and (2) if these factors were associated with the behavior and performance of cows after AMS training. Twenty-nine mid- to late-lactation Holstein cows (218 ± 49 DIM), who were milking on a rotary parlor and had never previously been milked in an AMS, were enrolled in this study. Cows were assigned to 1 of 2 dietary treatments, consisting of a basal partial mixed ration (PMR) common to both treatment groups, with a concentrate allowance (on a DM basis) of (1) 2.