With the increase in the national dairy herd that has occurred over the past number of years, more and more dairy farmers are looking at automation to improve labour efficiency, e.g. with robotic milking
Robotic milking helps to reduce the labour input associated with the daily task of milking by removing the need for operator presence at defined times each day.
This system helps to reduce the labour input associated with the daily task of milking by removing the need for operator presence at defined times each day.
Planning is one of the most important stages when considering a robotic-milking system i.e. DeLaval VMS V300 robotic milking system.
This includes the design of buildings and infrastructure, but also planning around grazing infrastructure and grassland management where the system is adopted in combination with grazing.
Robotic milking meets grazing
In a grass-based robotic milking system, the basic grassland management principles of maximising days at grass, measuring grass weekly, targeting pre-grazing covers of 1200-1400kg, and achieving post-grazing residuals of 4cm are no different to that of conventional milking system.
However, if anything, those principles hold an even greater level of importance given the role that quality grass plays as the primary motivator for cow to travel to the voluntary milking system (VMS) to be milked.
This sees the milking platform divided up into three sections (A, B and C), with the daily grass allocation split across these three sections. This is known as ABC grazing.
Cows will travel, voluntarily, between the three sections at defined times of the day passing through a series of smart selection gates as they move between the grazing sections.
The smart selection gates are located on a concrete pad at the edge of the shed, known as the ABC yard. These gates not only direct cows to the correct pasture at the defined time, but also have the benefit of providing pre-selection before milking.
Should the cow have milking permission, she is selected by the gates into the VMS waiting area, but if she was recently milked and does not have permission again, she is sent by the smart selection gates directly to the new paddock.
This helps maximise the time cows spend at grass and reduce the amount of time the taken up in the VMS by cows without milking permission.
Milking permission settings can allow cows access to the robot either after a set number of hours, or else based on expected milk yield.
Higher yielding cows are automatically selected for milking based on their milk yield, which means that a greater number of milkings is targeted at these cows, which in turn helps unlock their yield potential.
Importance of grass allocation
Grazed grass is the lowest cost animal feed for milk production. In any grass-based farming system, grass should be managed correctly to ensure it is of the highest quality to optimise production potential.
In a VMS, high quality grass also has the added benefit of promoting cow traffic from the paddock to the VMS. In addition, allocating the correct amount of grass to the herd is also crucial to achieving good cow flow.
When doing this, consideration needs to take place around the cow’s total dietary requirements, accounting for any supplementary feed that is being offered, either in the form of concentrates or buffer feed.
The quantity of grass the cow will consume, along with the pre-grazing cover in the paddock, determines the size of the strip that should be allocated in each section each day.
Given that cows are naturally less active grazers at night-time, strategies are adopted to ensure that the VMS is adequately utilised during that period.
Again, grazed grass is the focus point for this, with the quantity of grass allocated between the A, B and C sections weighted more towards the day-time sections.
While the smaller night-time section ensures that cows are not over-allocated grass in that period relative to the time that they would spend grazing. Additionally, the night grazing section should be located closest to the yard.
DeLaval sensors
The adoption of a DeLaval VMS V300 also brings the potential of improved herd management through the use of the DeLaval DelPro Farm Management software which processes, analyses and presents the data captured by the V300 and any additional optional DeLaval sensors.
One such example is the mastitis detection index, which provide a single figure for each cow outlining the potential mastitis risk.
Meanwhile, the DeLaval VMS V310 also has the ability to determine the reproductive status of a cow through inline progesterone testing of the milk.
A dynamic sampling pattern for each cow, combined with the DeLaval Biomodels, can diagnose each cow as either anoestrus, cyclical or pregnant.
To find out more information about DeLaval on how their robotic milking system, the VMS V300, works with grazing, download a DeLaval VMS Grazing Guide for free by clicking here.
For more information on DeLaval, click here.
