Associations of Grazing and Rumination Behaviours with Performance Parameters in Spring-Calving Dairy Cows in a Pasture-Based Grazing System

Simple Summary This study explored the associations of the lengths of time spent grazing and ruminating with performance parameters (milk yield, milk fat, milk protein, milk solids, liveweight, and the body condition score) in grazing dairy cows. The study selected a group of grazing dairy cows of different breeds and milking ages to record individual animals’ grazing and ruminating behaviours and performance parameters over three consecutive milking seasons. To record behaviour, an automated device AfiCollar was used,. The cows were mainly offered grass, with some additional feeds in various seasons, and milked once a day at 5:00 h. The behavioural variables showed weak to moderate relationships with the performance parameters. Compared with the grazing time, rumination time explained a larger proportion of the variance in milk yield, milk fat, milk protein, and milk solids. These findings support the recording of grazing and rumination behaviours to evaluate the milk yield and its composition. Abstract This study investigated the relationship of the length of time spent grazing and ruminating with the performance parameters of spring-calved grazing dairy cows (n = 162) over the lactation period for three lactation seasons (n = 54 per season). The cows were Holstein Friesian (HFR), Jersey (JE), and a crossbreed of Holstein Friesian/Jersey (KiwiCross), with 18 cows from each breed. The cows were either in their 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th lactation year, and had different breeding worth (BW) index values (103 < BW > 151). The cows were managed through a rotational grazing scheme with once-a-day milking in the morning at 05:00 h. The cows were mainly fed on grazed pastures consisting of perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne), red clover (Trifolium pretense), and white clover (Trifolium repens), and received additional feeds on various days in the summer and autumn seasons. This study used an automated AfiCollar device to continuously record the grazing time and rumination time (min/h) of the individual cows throughout the lactation period (~270 days) for three consecutive years (Year-1, Year-2, and Year-3). The milk yield, milk fat, milk protein, milk solids, liveweight, and body condition score data of the individual animals for the study years were provided by the farm. PROC CORR was used in SAS to determine the correlation coefficients (r) between the behaviour and production parameters. A general linear model fitted with breed × lactation year, individual cows, seasons, feed within the season, grazing time, rumination time, as well as their interactions, was assessed to test the differences in milk yield, milk fat, milk protein, milk solids, liveweight, and body condition score. The type I sum of squares values were used to quantify the magnitude of variance explained by each of the study factors and their interactions in the study variables. Grazing time exhibited positive associations with MY (r = 0.34), MF (r = 0.43), MP (r = 0.22), MS (r = 0.39), LW (r = −0.47), and BCS (r = −0.24) throughout the study years. Rumination time was associated with MY (r = 0.64), MF (r = 0.57), MP (r = 0.52), and MS (r = 0.57) in all study years, while there were no effects of rumination time on LW (r = 0.26) and BCS (r = −0.26). Grazing time explained up to 0.32%, 0.49%, 0.17%, 0.31%, 0.2%, and 0.02%, and rumination time explained up to 0.39%, 6.73%, 4.63%, 6.53%, 0.44%, and 0.17% of the variance in MY, MF, MP, MS, LW, and BCS, respectively.