Aspects on cow traffic and management on farms with automatic milking
This thesis consists of four case studies. The objective is to find out how to get a well functioning cow traffic in an automatic milking system. Different technical and building solutions are analysed and some adjustments are proposed for the DeLaval herd management software.
Case study 1: Lactation chart comparison from traditional cow traffic and Feed First? cow traffic
Case study 2: Farm A - a study of the precedence passage and the cow traffic
Case study 3: Farm B ? an overview of the farm and their way of working
Case study 4: Key factors ? how can we judge how well a VMS farm is working?
Case study 1: Lactation chart comparison from traditional cow traffic and Feed First? cow traffic
In this survey data is analysed from before and after rebuilding to Feed First? cow traffic. Lactation
graphs are compared between traditional cow traffic and Feed First? cow traffic. This case study is not included in the official version of this document.
Case study 2: Farm A ? a study of the precedence passage and the cow traffic
Farm A has two VMS from DeLaval in a tandem solution. The farm has Feed First? cow traffic and a new cow traffic solution which should give precedence to a selection of cows. The cow traffic as a whole on the farm has been studied and some problems have been adjusted. Some proposals are given on which cows should be in the precedence passage and some other things that ought to be adjusted on the farm concerning the cow traffic. In a comparison made between no precedence passage and the precedence passage working with the settings they had before the start of this study, only a few cows had shortened their waiting times before milking.
Case study 3: Farm B? an overview of the farm and their way of working
Farm B has two VMS from DeLaval in a parallel solution. The farm is functioning very well and is under expansion. The cow traffic solution used is Feed First?. A gate has been opened up and it is possible to pass it backwards. A short study has been made to find out how this influences the cow traffic.
Case study 4: Key factors ? how can we judge how well a VMS farm is working?
In this study key factors are presented that the farmer can use as tools to judge the performance of the farm.
Thus the idea is to help the farmer to estimate areas of improvement as well as areas performing well. The farmers should be able to compare their results to other farms as well as their own farm some time ago.
Abbreviations: DMI, dry matter intake; FF cow traffic, Feed First? cow traffic; mp, (milking
pen)=waiting area; ms, milking station; PMR, partly mixed ratio; pp, precedence passage=(VIP lane); trad.
cow traffic, traditional cow traffic; VMS, Voluntary Milking System.
Explanations: cow traffic is movements of cows between different barn facilities, to perform different
activities, like eating, resting, milking or using a cow brush.
Semi free cow traffic, semi guided cow traffic, selective cow traffic and selectively guided cow traffic are
the same
Primiparous cows have given birth to one or several calves at one occasion. Multiparous cows have given birth to calves at more than one occasion.