Grazing Habits of Dairy Cattle

Maximum returns from any pasture depend upon cropping practices conducive to growth response of plants, and upon cattle management to avoid waste.The inter-relationship of these two primary factors and the need for proper balance between the two in pasture management are apparent.Combination of rotational grazing with clipping, fertilizing, etc., are typical attempts to consider both major factors.Many conditions influence the system of cattle management adopted, such as short time pasturage daily to make limited pasture go further, night pastures, etc. Grazing habits of cows are of interest from the standpoint of the wellbeing of both the cattle and the pasture. GRAZING HABITS OF MILKING COWS DURING DAYTIMEComparative time spent in grazing by milking cows on six different pastures was recorded.Two cows were used on each pasture.The pastures averaged about four acres.Observations were taken for three consecutive days on each pasture, but not concurrently.The observations covered a 12-hour daylight period for the first two days and 11 hours the third day, or an average of 11 hours and 40 minutes per day.Records were kept on the time spent in grazing, number of times each cow lay down, and the number of times each cow drank.Summarization of results (table 1) showed the cows spent slightly less than half the time in grazing while on good pasture.Four different pairs of cows on four different good pastures averaged practically the same time spent in grazing, the variation being from 46 per cent of the day to 50 per cent, or a maximum difference between the groups of only 20 minutes in approximately five and one-half hours.One pair of cows was pastured on a field of mixed brome grass and alfalfa which was not uniform in stand.It was rated as fair pasture because it appeared to have less feed on it than the better pastures.Another field rated as poor pasture consisted of short wheat.On the fair pasture the cows spent 56 per cent of the time grazing and on the poor pasture 62 per cent of the time.Compared with an average of 5.6 hours of grazing on the four good pastures, the grazing time on fair pasture was 6.5 hours and 7.3 hours on poor pasture.Thus the cows spent 31 per cent more time grazing on the poor pasture than the average on the good pastures.Whether this difference would have been even more pro-