Avaliação do comportamento ingestivo de vacas holandesas de diferentes números de lactação

Abstract

Currently the milk production chain is widespread in Brazil, where the welfare of farm animals is widely discussed by consumer markets, especially those from developed countries, which are currently more demanding. It is of great importance to assess the behavior of these animals to obtain a better planning in management. This work aimed to evaluate aspects related to feeding behavior of dairy cows of different lactation numbers, in order to allow better planning in the deployment of more efficient production. This work was carried out on a farm designed to dairy farming in Dom Pedrito-RS, the periods of April and May 2013. Were selected nine cows of different lactation numbers (first, second and third degree of lactation) for chewing, which were followed in the interval between milkings (morning and afternoon). Cows were classified in the following activities: food or water consumption or leisure standing or lying down or standing or lying ruminating records were made every five minutes. It was possible to verify that there was a difference between numbers of lactations, which influenced the feeding behavior of Holstein cows in the period of emptiness forage. Dairy cows, regardless of the number of lactations had longer intake and resting during the daytime behavior. More studies are needed in this subject, due to the scarcity of papers related to dairy cattle ingestive behaviour.