Interest in OAD milking grows - but advance planning is essential

Interest in the practice of once a day (OAD) milking continues to grow, according to Teagasc, which held a conference on the topic in the Horse and Jockey Hotel, Co. Tipperary, today, Wednesday, January 15.

The practice is sometimes considered as an option in situations where labour is in short supply, the farm layout means that cows have long walks to and from the parlour, or where reducing the number of milkings carried out is attractive from a lifestyle perspective.

Speaking today, Teagasc dairy advisor and organiser of the conference, Brian Hilliard said: “Interest and enquiries on milking cows once a day for the entire lactation continues to rise each year.

“There is a slow but steady take up of the system as more farmers get the courage to make the change, or adopt it for the first time on non-dairy farms,” he added.

Out of the approximately 200 attendees at today’s event, in a quick poll of the audience, about 20 said they have operated a OAD system, with around double this number saying they were interested in exploring the option further.

Farmers considering OAD milking are encouraged to prepare well in advance before adopting the practice, by attending conferences like today, going to farm meetings on well-established OAD farms, and by contacting their Teagasc advisor, the agricultural agency highlighted.

UK farmer Keith Davis, one of the keynote speakers at today’s conference, explained why he operates a once a day milking system on his farm, stating:

“We milk OAD because we quickly realised that milking cows was the most profitable enterprise for our farm, after we moved to a grazing based system.

So by milking OAD, we could milk 1,000 cows using every hectare that is accessible to the dairy buildings, whilst still using our current 32-point rotary milking parlour.

“To get labour today, it helps to be flexible and to be able to communicate.”

Catherine and Liam Millerick said that they wanted to see if they could get 80-90% of their Twice A Day (TAD) income on OAD.

Once they researched that they could achieve 80-90% farm profitability, in line with the TAD herds, then it was a runner for them.

Going OAD for the Millericks was a choice that they made themselves, stating that they did not jump into it because of quota restrictions, or long cow walks.

The benefits they listed included: improved lifestyle for themselves and for their cows; better stock health; it was more labour friendly; and had similar levels of profitability.

Breeding the suitable cow for OAD, while it took time, was also important to the success of the business, Catherine stressed.

Robotics

Patrick Gowing, Teagasc dairy expansion advisor gave a comparison of TAD, robotics and once a day milking.

In his presentation, he emphasised that, when comparing OAD against a robotic milking system, the milking process is less time consuming when robots are used – 40 minutes versus two hours – but it requires significant investment to achieve this.

Therefore OAD is a lower risk option, provided the drop in output is not too excessive, as it requires lower investment levels than a robotic system, Patrick concluded.