Table 4.

Influence of feeding system, dietary adaptation period, and direct-fed microbial supplementation on feeding behavior

Item	Feeding system
	Conventionally fed				Naturally fed
	14 d		28 d		14 d		28 d			P-values2
	−DFM1	+DFM	−DFM	+DFM	−DFM	+DFM	−DFM	+DFM	SEM3	Syst	Adapt	DFM	Syst × adapt	Syst × DFM	Adapt × DFM	Syst × Adapt × DFM
Events, d–1
Visits4	22.5	23.2	47.7	23.1	26.0	26.3	24.1	22.9	2.02	0.60	0.97	0.41	0.07	0.59	0.24	0.49
Meals5	8.20	7.87	8.07	8.05	7.94	7.65	7.88	7.97	0.333	0.42	0.75	0.56	0.83	0.88	0.47	0.95
Time eating, min
Per visit	4.52	4.76	3.65	4.66	6.52	6.61	3.93	4.40	0.329	0.02	0.79	0.05	0.02	0.46	0.22	0.66
Per meal	11.9	12.8	11.1	12.7	11.4	11.7	11.6	12.0	0.57	0.23	0.89	0.05	0.40	0.29	0.61	0.72
Per day	96.5	97.3	88.7	101.6	90.1	86.5	88.3	95.1	3.45	0.01	0.74	0.08	0.29	0.28	0.02	0.87
Eating rate, g
Per visit	526	558	472	531	431	472	494	526	39.5	0.16	0.75	0.15	0.08	0.85	0.84	0.72
Per meal	1393	1483	1447	1447	1397	1538	1461	1447	68.5	0.70	0.96	0.26	0.81	0.85	0.23	0.73
Per min	118	117	131	115	123	134	129	121	5.1	0.07	0.80	0.31	0.23	0.17	0.02	0.78

¹Direct-fed microbial.

²Syst = conventionally fed vs. naturally fed; Adapt = 14 vs. 28 d; DFM = −DFM vs. +DFM.

³Standard error of the mean for the Syst × Adapt × DFM interaction.

⁴A visit was defined as each time the Insentec system detected a steer at a bunk.

⁵A meal was defined as eating periods that might include short breaks separated by intervals not longer than 7 min (Forbes, 1995; Montanholi et al., 2010).