Grazing Behaviour of Dairy Cows When Grazing Forage Rape in a Pasture-Based Automatic Milking System

Forage rape (Brassica napus L.) is a high producing, high nutritive value forage that has been successfully introduced as a grazable forage in conventional, intensified pasture-based dairy systems to fill autumn-winter feed gaps (Garcia et al. 2008). However, incorporation of forage rape as a grazing forage option for automatic milking systems (AMS), in which cows enter and exit grazing areas voluntarily, has not been investigated yet. We conducted an observational study to investigate the suitability of using forage rape in AMS and gain understanding of cow’s foraging behaviour when grazing this forage. The outcomes of this piece of work will help to determine management guidelines regarding incorporation of the crop into voluntary cow traffic systems