By Dr Jolly Kabirizi
Below are some income and cost management areas producers should think about before they decide to increase milking frequency.
Milk yield
Research reports that milk yield increases with increased milking frequency, however, the production increases are based on the individual response of the cow and various farm management factors.
When cows experience stress, such as heat stress, long-standing, or poor nutrition, the milk yield response most likely will not meet the expectations. Research with two to three times milking showed milk yield increases vary from 4% up to 25%
Milk components
Although milk yield increases with increased milking frequency, milk solids tend to decrease. Most studies suggest that milk component percentages may be negatively affected by increased milking frequency, but with the higher overall milk yield the pounds of milk fat and protein increase.
Udder health
The effect of increased milking frequency on udder health can be an additional benefit to the producer. It was reported that a herd with increased milking frequency (three times for the entire lactation or four times or six times for the first 21 days in milk), improved somatic cell count, particularly in high-producing cows. If a producer is paid a milk quality premium, he/she can benefit twofold – increased milk check and lower costs for mastitis treatment.
However, with higher milking frequency the teats are exposed to a high vacuum for a longer time which puts more stress on teat ends potentially decreasing milk quality and incurring costs.
For this reason, it is necessary that milking practices are followed thoroughly and milkers minimize overmilking and slippages. The milking equipment needs to be in good operating condition with more frequent check-ups. It is suggested that flow rates for the automatic take-offs were set at the higher end of the scale to avoid teat-end strain.
Costs
The major costs associated with each additional milking are feed and labour which will ultimately determine whether it makes sense to milk more often.
Additional costs include utilities and milking parlour supplies. In general, these costs will rise about 30-50% when going from 2 times a day to 3 times a day milking.
Labour
Labour includes the labour of the milker to get the cows into the milking parlour, washing and scraping, and possibly feeding the herd during the additional milking. If the milk price is low, more milk will be needed to cover the labour costs.
In areas where the labour market is tight, the marginal labour cost could be higher.
One more thing to consider is that with increased milking frequency, it is inevitable that one or two milkings will be at night, so it is important to have reliable workers as the manager could end up doing the night milking.
Feed intake
With increased milking frequency cows will eat more to meet their increased caloric demand from producing more milk. The success of increased milking frequency will depend on not only feed quality (the content of dry matter, energy, protein etc.) but also on feed availability.
Cows that have access to the feed most of the day or are fed ad libitum will respond to increased milking frequency better than those that are limited in feed intake. It is suggested that managers review their feed management practices to meet the cows’ increased energy needs.
Because of feed availability, research suggests that dairy farmers use the incremental value of milk yield in litres per day rather than percentages as the latter can lead to overestimating the feed needed to support the additional milk production. It is also recommended that managers check their feed inventory before increasing milking frequency so that there is sufficient feed to support the increased needs.
Milking frequency and cow time budget
Natural cow behaviour is one of the management areas that may be overlooked when producers think of increasing milking frequency.
A cow needs approximately 16 – 17 hours a day for eating and resting, 2-3 hours for standing, walking grooming, and half an hour for drinking water.
That leaves 2.5 – 3.5 hours for milking. If the cow spends more than 3.5 hours outside her pen, something else must be adjusted, and usually, it is lying time
It is recommended that dairy farmers consider the level of the current production, feed management practices, use of the milking parlour, milking parlour costs per milking, feed inventory, current prices for ration components, and market milk components prices to determine whether additional milking will be profitable.
Be sure to consider the cost and availability of labour, availability of additional feed, space in the parlour, and time away from the pen for cows as well as the level of production and components in your herd when evaluating a change from 2 to 3 times milking.
