China Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine ›› 2022, Vol. 49 ›› Issue (10): 3809-3818.doi: 10.16431/j.cnki.1671-7236.2022.10.013

• Nutrition and Feed • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Population Characteristics and Influencing Factors of Eating Time in Holstein Cows

HUANG Yuechuan1,2, ZHU Lei2, WANG Lei1,2, ZHANG Hailiang2, GUO Gang3, WANG Yan3, HUANG Xixia1, WANG Yachun2   

  1. 1. College of Animal Sscience & Technology, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Urumqi 830052, China;
    2. College of Animal Science & Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China;
    3. Bejing Sunlon Animal Husbandary Development Co., Ltd., Beijing 100029, China
  • Received:2022-03-23 Online:2022-10-05 Published:2022-09-30

Abstract: 【Objective】 This study was conducted to explore the general characteristics and reveal influencing factors of the eating time in Holstein cows in Beijing area for the purpose of laying a foundation for genetic analysis of daily eating time,and providing reference for accurate management of Holstein cows.【Method】 The original (one record per hour) and daily records (one record per day) for eating time of 1 166 lactating Holstein cows from a large-scale dairy farm in Beijing area were collected from July 2019 to March 2021.The mixed linear model of SAS 9.2 software was used to analyze the impacts of parity,season,lactation stage,herd and test year on daily eating time.【Result】 The average daily eating time was (224.43±60.24) min,and the original eating time was (9.41±4.67) min/h for Holstein cows. According to the statistical analysis,the eating time was greatly influenced by feeding management and the peak of eating time always came up with the feeding time of TMR in dairy farm.Furthermore,season,parity and lactation stage had impacts on eating time. During the test period, the daily feeding time decreased generally with the increase of temperature and humidity index (THI), and it was relatively low in summer.The parity,season,lactation stage,herd and test year had significant effects (P<0.01) on daily eating time.The daily eating time was the highest in spring (201.66 min±1.91 min) and the lowest in summer (158.85 min±1.92 min).As the increase of parity,a decrease trend for daily eating time was observed,and it dropped by 4.90 and 27.36 min in second and third parity,respectively.Daily eating time had a slightly downtrend during the whole lactating stage after late transition period and it was the highest at mid-lactation period(197.62 min±1.80 min).【Conclusion】 The population characteristics of eating time in Holstein cows were invetigated and showed that daily eating time could be influenced by environment and individual physiological effects.Based on the results from this study,dairy farms could improve the farm management using eating time records automatically obtained by the collar system.

Key words: dairy cattle; eating time; temperature and humidity index

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