This study supported earlier results indicating that during nor-mal conditions, cows spend much less time lying down prior tomilking than after milking. When cows were deprived of lying dur-ing a period between eight and four hours prior to milking, theyincreased the duration of lying down during the last four hoursbefore milking, indicating an increased motivation for resting. Milkyield did not correlate to lying behaviour prior to milking neither inthe baseline situation, nor after the deprivation treatment. We werethus not able to confirm that the amount of milk in the udder beforeevening milking had an effect on the duration of lying down duringthis period. In addition, we found that forced standing increasedthe frequency of leaning.