Study Regarding Seasons Influence on the Drinking Behaviour in Lactating Dairy Cows

The aim of the paper was to evaluate the influence that season has on the water consumption behaviour in lactating dairy cows. Researches were carried out on twenty multiparous Romanian Black and White cows, during summer and winter seasons. Cows were housed in a tied stanchion barn 24 h, and had free access to a water source. Environmental parameters, quantity of consumed forages and milk yield were measured each day of the experiments. Studied traits were: number of drinking bouts and duration of the drinking periods, frequency of the drinking periods, time length between consumption of the forages and first drinking period and time length between milking and first drinking period. Average number of drinking bouts on 24 h registered during winter season was 8.15, and 16.10 during summer season. Differences registered between the two seasons for this trait were significantly statistic (p<0.001). Duration of a drinking period was of 0.82 minutes in the winter and of 0.84 minutes during summer season.