The idea that a food reward can be used to train animals to submit voluntary to management procedures is becoming well developed in the literature on animal welfare. Grain feeding has been studied a way to induce cows to use automatic milking machines on a regular basis. The aim of the present study was to determine how the amount of concentrate fed affects the cows’ behaviour in entering the parlour, and the likelihood that cows will defecate or urinate in the parlour. Cows within one milking group received 0, 0.3 or 0.6 kg of concentrate per milking in the parlour using a computer controlled feeding system. Cows were observed before and after the treatment began, recording order of entry, latency (s) to fully enter the parlour, if the cow needed to be pushed into the parlour and if the cow defecated or urinated while in the milking parlour. Cows receiving feed moved up in the milking order by 7.6 positions once the treatment period began. The latency for these cows to entered the parlour reduced during the treatment, and these cows were 59% less likely to require being pushed. This latter effect carried over to the control cows that were not fed in the parlour: these control cows were less likely to be pushed during the treatment period. There was no effect of feeding on the proportion of animals that defecated or urinated while in the milking parlour. Although feeding had a positive effect on entry into the parlour, the amount of food provided had no effect. Therefore the results of this study indicate that even small quantities of concentrate can act to motivate parlour entry, reducing the need for pushing and other interventions that may have negative effects on the cows.