Competition for total mixed diets fed for ad libitum intake using one or four cows per feeding station

When dairy cow facilities are being designed, a limited feeding area might be profitable and recommendable if the increased competition for feed does not harm the welfare of the animals or affect production negatively. An experiment was conducted at the University Cattle Research Centre (Uppsala, Sweden) to investigate the performance of individual cows as well as groups of cows. Treatments used 1 or 4 cows per feeding station with a total mixed diet fed for ad libitum intake. The feeding stations were troughs placed on electronic balances and were 1.08 m wide. Sixteen dairy cows were divided into two groups and were studied in an experiment with a change-over design so that each group went through each treatment twice. A computerized feeding system automatically recorded consumption data for feed and water. Video recordings were used to study the social dominance order, the level of aggression at the feeding area, and the time budget of the cows. The mean feed intake increased slightly, but the number of visits to the feeding stations did not change at the higher level of competition. The cows, however, spent significantly less time eating and increased their consumption rate when the competition level increased. The number of displacements at the feeding stations increased dramatically. Cows of low social rank were much more frequently displaced while eating. The effects of dominance value, age, eating rate, and energy requirement of the cows are presented.