group 1-4 cows strip-grazed on purple guinea grass pasture for 24 h daily, apart from twice daily milking (in the same milking barn as group 2), and rotated around the 15 sup-paddocks allocated to them; group 2 -4 cows fed indoors under loose housing with pasture cut-and-carried from an equal area of the same sward. the barn was 7 m long x 4 m wide x 2 m high with a tiled roof and its long axis was oriented east-west.