This study aimed to evaluate the water intake behavior, during the transition period, of Holstein, Gir and Holstein-Gir crossbreeds heifers receiving different TMR allowances. Thirty-six heifers with BW of 715 ± 64.5 kg, and BCS of 4.2 ± 0.3 were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 TMR allowances: 1.69 or 1.89% of BW (values expressed as TMR dry matter) during the prepartum period. Forage to concentrate ratio of the basal TMR was 82:18. Forage was composed of corn silage and sorghum silage, concentrate was based on ground corn and soybean meal. Automatic drinkers weighed and registered the amount of ingested water, time spent at the water trough, number of drinking events, mean duration of visits to the water trough and water ingestion rate. Data were submitted to variance analysis, using the Mixed procedure of SAS according to a completely randomized design and repeated measurements, considering the effect of diet allowance, genotype, day of measurement and their interactions, days as repeated measurements; BW and BCS were used as covariates. Number of events was analyzed using nonparametric statistics (Wilcoxon test). No interaction between genotype, TMR offer and day were detected except for water ingestion rate in the prepartum. Holstein and crossbreed heifers showed lower intake rates than Gir when fed TMR at 1.89% of BW, 0.5 ± 0.2, 0.9 ± 0.2 and 2.7 ± 0.2 kg/min, respectively. Genotype did not affect water intake rate in the postpartum (2 ± 0.5 kg water/min). Holstein heifers had higher water intake, spent more time drinking, had more visits to the water trough, and spent more time per visit drinking than Gir (Table 1). Genotype was associated with the amount of ingested water and behavior related to water ingestion. Table 1. Water intake behavior pre- and postpartum by breed

Item	Prepartum			SEM	Postpartum			SEM
Holstein	Gir	Crossbreed	Holstein	Gir	Crossbreed
Total daily water intake (kg)	36.4a	12.3c	22.9b	2.6	57.8a	20.0c	39.3b	3.6
Daily time spent drinking (min)	77.1a	12.1c	32.9b	5.0	89.0a	13.2b	26.8b	3.7
Visits to the drinker (no.)	4.4a	2.2b	4.3a	0.4	5.2a	5.5a	4.9a	0.5
Duration of visits (min)	17.8a	4.1c	8.8b	1.2	14.4a	2.7b	5.1b	2.1

^a,b,cMeans in the same row followed by different letters are distinct (P < 0.05).