Over the next few weeks it may be worth looking reviewing the milking routine to see if you can finish up the day at a more reasonable time.

During the hectic spring months, the routine can get bent out of shape and stay that way throughout the breeding season.

In fact, up to 75% of dairy farmers start evening milking after 5:00p.m, according to Teagasc.

Obviously it is not always possible to move the evening milking to an earlier time on some farms, but if it is, it may be worth doing so in a bid to make the farm more attractive for farm labour and future generations, as well as improving your own work-life balance.

With so many farmers still opting for the traditional 10-12 hour milking interval, a change to a 16:8 interval can be daunting, especially on a year like this when costs are sky-high and milk price is poor, as farmers fear that milk production may drop.

However, if the interval is changed correctly, the drop can be minimal and even non-existent.

Milking routine

A 16:8 milking interval is typically a 7:00a.m morning start and a 3:00pm evening start and ensures that the main job on the farm is wrapped up before 5:00-6:00p.m.

A Teagasc study analysed milk recording data from 2,366 herds across 23 counties over a one-year period (2020).

The study showed that across all herds, the mean evening milking finish time was 6:43p.m and the length of the working day was nearly 12 hours, with huge variation seen as the working day ranged from 8.5 hours to 16.4 hours.

The milking interval is defined as the time from when the first cluster goes on in the morning to the time the first cluster goes on again that evening.

In order to reduce the amount of hours worked a day, it has been shown that a 16:8 milking interval is feasible, which would see a farmers putting clusters on at 7:00a.m and again that evening at 3:00p.m.

The data collected on commercial herds for the study showed that there was no relationship between milking interval and daily milk yield, with no change seen in somatic cell count (SCC).

Although, a lot of the time it can be difficult early in the evenings, especially at busy times of the year when cows are calving down and calves have to be fed, so there should be some effort to reduce your working hours.

Even if it is difficult to implement a 16:8 milking interval during the busy springtime, farmers should see whether it is possible to introduce it later on in the year to reduce the workload and make your farm a more attractive place to work.

If your milking interval is not going to affect your milk solid production, your cow performance and your SCC, then it is certainly a no brainer to try and finish up a bit earlier in the evenings.

Now is a great time to even try and get started a half an hour earlier than usual.

There is nothing stopping you from going back out on the farm to finish off jobs after that, once the milking is done.