The study objective was to evaluate the effect of 2 feeding strategy on animal performance, DM intake and ingestive behavior of lactating cows. Eighteen primiparous cows (528 ± 40 kg BW; 3.2 ± 0.2 BCS; autumn calving) were assigned to one of 2 nutritional treatments from calving to 65 DIM: (G0) TMR ad libitum (55:45, forage:concentrate) or (G1) grazing of Lucerne (6-h grazing in 3-d strips; 20 kgDM/d) + 70% of ad libitum PMR intake. All cows consumed 2.0 kgDM/d of a commercial ration at each milking. Milk yield was determined daily, milk composition weekly, and BW and BCS every 14 d. Diurnal cow behavior was recorded every 15 min, during 3 consecutive day, at wk 3 and 6 of lactation. During the grazing session, the number of bites were counted during 1 min. Individual herbage intake was estimated using cow energy requirements. Data were analyzed with a mixed model including treatment, DIM, and their interaction as fixed effects, block and cow as random effects and calving data as a covariate. Solid corrected milk yield tended (P = 0.07) to be greater for G0 than G1 cows (27.9 vs. 25.6 ± 0.58 kg/d). Cow BW did not differ but BCS was greater (P = 0.01) for G0 than G1 cows (2.9 vs. 2.6 ± 0.06). Neither total DM nor energy intake differed between treatments (16.7 vs. 17.3 ± 0.46 kgDM/d for G0 and G1, respectivily). For G1 cows, the proportion of time dedicated to grazing was greater (P < 0.05) for wk 3 than 6 (54 vs. 33%, respectively) but bite rate was less (P < 0.05) in wk 3 than wk 6 (36 vs. 44 ± 1.3 bite/min, respectively). In wk 3, the proportion of time spent for feed (pasture and TMR) consumption was greater (P < 0.01) for G1 than G0 cows (51 vs. 27%), while in wk 6 it did not differ (P = 0.91) between treatments. In wk 3, G0 cows spent more time ruminating and idling at morning (16 and 9%; respectively) than G1 cows. Despite similar DM intake, G1 presented decreased solid corrected milk yield and BCS than G0 cows which would suggest greater energy expenditure in the former ones, probably explained by the increased time dedicated to food collection