In my opinion, milking freshly calved cows once-a-day is akin to putting a thoroughbred racehorse between the shafts of a cart.
I make this point because some people are recommending such an approach to dairy cow management on the basis that it has ‘labour saving’ benefits.
To be honest, I am still trying to get my head around it all.
Once-a-day milking
Let’s consider the details.
Firstly, a cow is genetically programmed to produce as much milk as she can in the days after calving. And any steps taken to prevent this from happening will have one – and only one – outcome. The animal may never reach her full peak output potential.
It doesn’t take rocket science to work this out. Moreover, it goes against every principle that a dairy farmer was brought up with, to consciously restrict a cow’s output at a time when she can produce milk most efficiently.
But there is also a welfare issue coming into play here. It’s inherently inhumane, I believe, for a cow to go through the stress of calving, only to be kept walking around in a dirty cubicle house with 24 hours’ milk in her udder for who knows how long.
And, of course, every time she does lie down, significant amounts of milk will squirt out from her teat end on to a cubicle surface.
This supposes that she does lie down in a bed. The scenario of such an animal resting in a feed passage or on slats at this time of the year doesn’t bear thinking about.
Cow welfare
In any event, it all adds up to a mastitis super highway state of affairs. And dealing with that set of circumstances doesn’t constitute a labour-saving opportunity in my book.
Even suckler men know that putting a second calf to a freshly calved cow with a good udder, even for a few days, helps keep the milk to her for the rest of the season.
But don’t get me wrong. A strong case can be made for once-a-day milking within all dairy operations.
But it’s at the other end of the production cycle, i.e., once a cow is 180 days or more into her lactation and safely back in calf.
Specifically, a reduction in the number of milkings can be used to improve the body condition score of thinner cows as they come ever closer to their drying-off date and the calving that follows.