Feeding supplements to grazing dairy cows as a partial mixed ration (PMR) can have milk production benefits over feeding equivalent amounts of ME as cereal grain in the parlor and conserved forage in the field, especially if the PMR contains canola meal. The aim of this experiment was to see if similar milk responses to PMR could result from feeding identical components as a grain mix (GM) in the parlor, with hay in the field. The importance of canola in the PMR to the milk response was also assessed at 2 pasture allowances. Three supplementation strategies were used: PMR, comprising 7.1 kg DM wheat, 2.3 kg DM corn grain and 2.6 kg DM oaten hay, mixed and offered twice daily on a feedpad; PMR+C, same as PMR except 2.6 kg DM of wheat was replaced with the same amount of canola meal; and GM, a mix of the same ingredients as PMR+C was fed in the parlor at milking but the hay was fed in the field. Total amount of supplement offered was 12 kg DM/cow per d. There were also 2 pasture allowances of 15 and 25 kg DM/cow per d (to ground level), making 6 combinations of supplement strategy and pasture allowance, each of which was allocated to 3 groups of 6 Holstein-Friesian cows (a total of 108 cows). Intake and milk was measured during the final 14 d of a 28 d experiment. There were no differences in yields of energy-corrected milk (ECM), fat or protein between cows offered PMR+C and GM at either pasture allowance, while cows offered supplements as the PMR produced less ECM (ECM yields were 31.7, 34.3 and 34.7 kg/cow per d for cows offered the PMR, PMR+C and GM diets, respectively, at the high pasture allowance, and 30.2, 31.4, and 32.7 kg/cow per d at the low allowance; s.e.d. = 0.622, P = 0.002). The GM cows achieved the same yields as PMR+C cows with reduced intake of pasture and supplement. These data show that a response similar to that achieved feeding PMR+C could be achieved by feeding the components in the parlor using existing feeding infrastructure, making the strategy more relevant to the 80% of Australian farmers who don’t have feed pads. We also showed that the inclusion of canola meal is important for optimizing the milk response.