The University of Kentucky team of graduate students is currently looking for herds willing to participate in a research study looking at eating time, rumination, activity and lying time in the prefresh and postfresh period.
The project seeks Holstein herds with at least 200 cows on DHI test, kept in freestalls or a composted bedded pack barn, averaging at least 80 pounds of milk a day.
The outline of the study includes the following: an in-person survey with the producer, measurements of feedbunk space and pen size, ration samples and installing a collar- and leg-based technology on 25 prefresh and 25 postfresh cows. The technology will stay on the animals for five days. The producer will remove the devices and mail them back to the University of Kentucky for data collection. The producer will receive a report on the measurements collected within a week. Once the study is finished, each farm will receive a report that compares their herd with the other herds in the study.
If interested in participating, please contact Michele Jones, a master’s student at University of Kentucky, at (765) 404-8784 or via email. 
This research is sponsored by Arm & Hammer Animal Nutrition.
—From University of Kentucky news release
