The objective of this study was to describe the variation of high cow ration (HCR) recipe feeding on 26 California dairies ranging in size from 1,100 to 6,900 cows. Records from a consecutive 12-mo period were extracted from the feeding management software FeedWatch 7.0. The variables included were date, recipe, recipe number, feeding sequence, start feeding time, end feeding time, target weight, actual weight and pen number. Data set included information from 51,195 recipes. Descriptive statistics were conducted with SAS 9.3. The median day-to-day variation on start feeding time [median (range)] was |12| min (|6| to |60| min). The interquartile range (IQR = Q₃ - Q₁) per dairy was | <15| min (Q₁) to | >33| min (Q₃). On 23 dairies, at least 70% (up to 93%) of the feedings were done within 15 min from the previous day feeding time. Across dairies, at least 2% of the time feedings were delayed by 60 to 90 min (n = 23; up to 17% of the time), by 90 to 120 min (n = 23; up to 5%), and by >120 min (n = 26; up to 9.6%). On 9 dairies, at least 5% (up to 25%) of the total feedings were delayed at least by 2 h relative to the previous day. On those dairies, delays affected 75 to 100% of the pens, at least once. Feeding delays of 2 h or more were observed in all dairies, ranging from 0.05 to 2% (n = 18), 2 to 5% (n = 7) and 9.6% (n = 1). The median time elapsed between the last feeding to the first feeding of the next day was 23 h 50 min, 14 h 20 min to 23 h 30 min and 15 h 50 min to 19 h 00 min for dairies feeding once a day (n = 2), twice a day (n = 18), and thrice a day (n = 6). The IQR for the time elapsed between the last feeding to the first feeding was <1 h 20 min (Q₁) to >4 h 25 min (Q₃). The median time to complete the first feeding to all HCR pens [median (range)] was1 h 18 min (10 min 58 s to 4 h 24 min). The IQR was <18 min (Q₁) to >45 min (Q₃). At first feeding, the amount of HCR recipe delivered [median (range)] was 49.7% (33.1 to 100%) of the total amount fed per day. The IQR was <1.8% (Q₁) and >19.4% (Q₃). Based on our data, some dairies could improve their time consistency at first feeding.