milking the cows were forced to stand for the last 4 h beforemilking, the latency period to lie down after milking tended tobe shorter than baseline (16.6avs. 15.7 vs. 6.7b± 4 min: base-line, forced standing 10:00–14:00, forced standing 14:00–18:00 h,respectively; F2,55= 2.8, P = 0.07). The milk yield or parity had noeffect on latency to lie down after evening milking.