Once a day milking

pappuller

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
M6 Hard shoulder
Thinking about it, many people put robots in because they hate milking cows. They then complain they can't get the robots to work because they thought they would never have to look at cows again. Many of these guys would have probably been better off looking into once a day rather than robots. They could either do the one milking or pay someone to do it. Heaps cheaper than a bunch of robots they eventually have to pull out because they can't get the system to work.
They would have been better not milking cows at all if they hate milking them!!!!
 

Aircooled

Member
Location
co Antrim
OAD would interest me more than robots. If milk price ever drops too far might be best option. With a 5 month winter up north, and to maintain an even workload maybe winter calving Oct to end of Feb then turnout start of Apr and change whole herd over to OAD early May until dry. Late calvers could then be put onto TAD in Nov back in along with the fresh calvers. With calving starting in Oct that would be over 4 months on OAD. My main concern would be milk runout. Opinions welcome. (y)
 

Stinker

Member
Just a quick update.

Still milking our small group of our high pli Holsteins once a day.

Yields are inconsistent stant but on average not to bad. Cows currently giving 26 litres a day and heifers about 17 litres. Cows peaked over 30 litres and heifers at about 20 litres. Top yield was 37 litres.

Positives So far:
not one case of mastitis,
not one foot lifted with cows walking over a mile to the parlour every day.
95% bulled after 3 weeks(the bull did escape in with them twice as well)
Cows in good condition

Negatives:
Heifers not milking as well as I would like
A couple of older cows not milking so well
Some cows have crazy high constituents others not so much

Need to see how yields hold up and how many take to ai before I can say if it's sensible but it looks like it is possible and there are no issues with welfare.
 
Last edited:

Sid

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
South Molton
Thinking about it, many people put robots in because they hate milking cows. They then complain they can't get the robots to work because they thought they would never have to look at cows again. Many of these guys would have probably been better off looking into once a day rather than robots. They could either do the one milking or pay someone to do it. Heaps cheaper than a bunch of robots they eventually have to pull out because they can't get the system to work.
If some one hates milking cows then they really need to take a look at the whole farm. Doesn't matter if your oad 3x or robots those cows have to be managed not just left to do nothing!

Just a quick update.

Still milking our small group of our high pli Holsteins once a day.

Yields are inconstant but on average not to bad. Cows currently giving 26 litres a day and heifers about 17 litres. Cows peaked over 30 litres and heifers at about 20 litres. Top yield was 37 litres.

Positives So far:
not one case of mastitis,
not one foot lifted with cows walking over a mile to the parlour every day.
95% bulled after 3 weeks(the bull did escape in with them twice as well)
Cows in good condition

Negatives:
Heifers not milking as well as I would like
A couple of older cows not milking so well
Some cows have crazy high constituents others not so much

Need to see how yields hold up and how many take to ai before I can say if it's sensible but it looks like it is possible and there are no issues with welfare.
Great update.
Not every cow will take to oad like a friesian won't take to being fed for 11,000 litres and not get fat!
 

Stinker

Member
Good question. Depends how they hang on in there. I have some low yielders from the autumn in the group still milking well but they were on twice a day to start with. I think an average of over 5000 litres is likely. I must admit I haven't averaged bf and protein percent yet but they do appear higher than the twice a day cow. I will look into it
 
Just a quick update.

Still milking our small group of our high pli Holsteins once a day.

Yields are inconsistent stant but on average not to bad. Cows currently giving 26 litres a day and heifers about 17 litres. Cows peaked over 30 litres and heifers at about 20 litres. Top yield was 37 litres.

Positives So far:
not one case of mastitis,
not one foot lifted with cows walking over a mile to the parlour every day.
95% bulled after 3 weeks(the bull did escape in with them twice as well)
Cows in good condition

Negatives:
Heifers not milking as well as I would like
A couple of older cows not milking so well
Some cows have crazy high constituents others not so much

Need to see how yields hold up and how many take to ai before I can say if it's sensible but it looks like it is possible and there are no issues with welfare.
Any update?
 

Stinker

Member
Any update?


All cows are currently back on twice a day milking because the logistics of keeping them apart in the shed was to much hassle. Some are still giving 20l plus other are all but dry.

Early worries about mastitis never came to anything. Infact we didn't get any. Cell counts were high on a couple but nothing to crazy. Body condition was good up until august then the cows started to go off a bit. Seemed a bit odd. Lots of cows served but incalf rate was worse than twice a day cows. Milk quality especially bf seemed very low on some animals(2.5 percent others over 6)

I need to go look up some figures to give you a better answer. My gut tells me it could of gone better. The sudden loss of condition I don't understand. Maybe grass quality wasn't good enough, minerals perhaps although I was hoping to feed them less than I did. I put 200 low yielders on it in the back end and they loved it.
 
All cows are currently back on twice a day milking because the logistics of keeping them apart in the shed was to much hassle. Some are still giving 20l plus other are all but dry.

Early worries about mastitis never came to anything. Infact we didn't get any. Cell counts were high on a couple but nothing to crazy. Body condition was good up until august then the cows started to go off a bit. Seemed a bit odd. Lots of cows served but incalf rate was worse than twice a day cows. Milk quality especially bf seemed very low on some animals(2.5 percent others over 6)

I need to go look up some figures to give you a better answer. My gut tells me it could of gone better. The sudden loss of condition I don't understand. Maybe grass quality wasn't good enough, minerals perhaps although I was hoping to feed them less than I did. I put 200 low yielders on it in the back end and they loved it.
Going to try again next year?
 
OAD would interest me more than robots. If milk price ever drops too far might be best option. With a 5 month winter up north, and to maintain an even workload maybe winter calving Oct to end of Feb then turnout start of Apr and change whole herd over to OAD early May until dry. Late calvers could then be put onto TAD in Nov back in along with the fresh calvers. With calving starting in Oct that would be over 4 months on OAD. My main concern would be milk runout. Opinions welcome. (y)
How many robots would run
 

Manney

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Penzance
I just pinched this from facebook from the nz oad group.
FB_IMG_1526627727506.jpg

So this farm is doing 554 kg solids and 4746l per cow!? Is anyone in the uk achieveing this level of production on a oad system?

Im talking myself into going oad next season but could do with visiting a few farms and chatting to others first.
 

RastaBoy

Member
Thinking about it, many people put robots in because they hate milking cows. They then complain they can't get the robots to work because they thought they would never have to look at cows again. Many of these guys would have probably been better off looking into once a day rather than robots. They could either do the one milking or pay someone to do it. Heaps cheaper than a bunch of robots they eventually have to pull out because they can't get the system to work.

It’s funny when Robots don’t work it’s always the farmers fault !
That’s bullisxxt ! Robots are not all they are cracked up to be.
Other than Lely and DeLaval the others are not reliable. Even DeLaval and Lely comes down to the dealer.
If someone hates cows they’d be better off selling the cows fullstop. Once a day milking is not the answer. I deal with a feed firm who refuse to deal with farmers who milk once a day and I don’t blame them. In fact when I heard that it reinforced my faith in them.
Fed up of hearing non working Robots are always the farmers fault and once a day is the future.
Both are rubbish in my opinion.
 

Manney

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Penzance
@Manney is this to boost your milk price on the new contract? Or part of your long term plan

Its something I've always been interested in. It would fit the new contract quite nicely I think. Main drivers for change is my old man is 68 and doing less and less, I don't have any other staff so I can get pretty busy at times, my grazing block will be bigger next year so will need to have more cows to utilise it, I would like to simplify my system and use a lot less concentrates.

My thoughts are to milk once a day milk full season. Increase cow numbers to utilise grazing block fully and to offset the drop in milk yield. Output so be roughly the same as where I am now but I would hope to reduce costs from less conc fed, less electric used and get rid of some machinery.
 

Durry cows

Member
Location
Derbyshire
Its something I've always been interested in. It would fit the new contract quite nicely I think. Main drivers for change is my old man is 68 and doing less and less, I don't have any other staff so I can get pretty busy at times, my grazing block will be bigger next year so will need to have more cows to utilise it, I would like to simplify my system and use a lot less concentrates.

My thoughts are to milk once a day milk full season. Increase cow numbers to utilise grazing block fully and to offset the drop in milk yield. Output so be roughly the same as where I am now but I would hope to reduce costs from less conc fed, less electric used and get rid of some machinery.
How many cows are you at now and how many would you go to oad? Be a system all by yourself basically?
 

Clay52

Member
Location
Outer Space
It’s funny when Robots don’t work it’s always the farmers fault !
That’s bullisxxt ! Robots are not all they are cracked up to be.
Other than Lely and DeLaval the others are not reliable. Even DeLaval and Lely comes down to the dealer.
If someone hates cows they’d be better off selling the cows fullstop. Once a day milking is not the answer. I deal with a feed firm who refuse to deal with farmers who milk once a day and I don’t blame them. In fact when I heard that it reinforced my faith in them.
Fed up of hearing non working Robots are always the farmers fault and once a day is the future.
Both are rubbish in my opinion.

Personally, I’m not for once a day milking. I also don’t believe robots are all they a cracked up to be currently but many do put them in for the wrong reasons.
 

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quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

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