Efficious Milkings

Increasing the capacity of a VMS is always interesting.

In retrospect, each milking costs time. Thus, each milking costs money. So, a VMS visit must be efficient. In the Report MILKINFO => MILKING PERFORMANCE you see, among other things, which cows use the most time Milking Duration but also which cows give the least yield per milking (= average milk yield per milking from the past 7 days.)

Little milk per visit is not efficient!
Also, take a look at “Animal” => Group Milkings (be sure to set it for 24 hours) and then sort according to milking yield. It should be self-explanatory that we would rather not see any milkings under 5 liters. This, of course, is theoretical.
But, one dairy has more than the other. And many of these milkings are often from the same cows. Often, these milking jobs are incomplete and don’t let yourself be appalled at the minutes this milking has taken in the next column…
If these cows have just calved, or you have a good explanation then it’s fine. It will pass.
Otherwise, could you put them dry?
Is the milk permission for these cows set well?
Do they need to come less often or do they need more time between milkings after an incomplete milk job?
Are they, almost, three teated?

Recognizing subclinical acidosis 

In the September 2016 edition of Veeteelt (Dutch magazine for dairy farmers), Dutch-Canadian Prof. Kees Plazier denotes that 20% of cows have to deal with subclinical acidosis in the first 3 months of lactation. Clinical acidosis is visible, subclinical is not. What you might notice is that the cow is not as active, does not produce what is expected, does not get in the heat, etc. And after a few weeks, because of the release of toxins, the cow often gets laminitis.

Possible causes:

• • Non proportional ratio between concentrate and roughage.
    For example: feeding too many concentrate-like products (starch or sugary = tastier);
  • Or: your ration is rightly calculated but the cows don’t eat it in the right proportion
  • It is too easy for cow to sort out these products;
  • Increasing concentrate too fast after calving;
  • The cow is already in a moderate condition, has hoof problems or other conditions which is resulting in the cow coming less often to the feeding lane;
  • At first after feeding there is an abundance of tasty food, but only there for part of the day.
    At the end of the day there is for some hours much less till only the remaining rests
  • Too little structure in roughage => to little rumen activity

These causes gives too much fluctuation in rumen pH value, and that gives big chance to (sub)clinical acicdosis.

With the help of the VMS you can easily sort out the subclinical cows. Why else would a cow not come to the VMS at least 3 times a day in the 20-60 days after calving? So look, for example, in the list MILKINGINFO at MILKING PERFORMANCE, whether these cows come to the VMS 3 times a day and are active enough!  In the list VMS MILKINGS>COW STATISTICS shows if the cow has been refused enough.

Check the cows that stand out here on manore and condition (combining data DelPro with eyes of the farmer) Then you know exactly riskfull this cow for subclinical acidosis is!

Better milking good udders

You might sometimes notice that the VMS has trouble attaching the liners to a cow with a good udder and good teat placement.

It is quite probable that something went wrong during the last milking which resulted in saving the wrong teat positions.

Simply one more time teaching the cow again is the best advice.

Ensure that the grippers are perfectly under the teat.

And where the laser once was calibrated halfway on the teat, it must now be adjusted at the lower tip of the teat!

December:

Udder hair shave

It is surprising how fast hair currently grows on the udder!

On our “Work routine” list is written that it is advised to burn or shave hair on the udder every two months.

In the fall and winter, because hair grows more quickly, it is advised to shave or burn the hairs more often.

It is also suggested that you shave all of the hair on the tail and plume with what hangs on it. (That is often the cause for a “dirty” cow, which is also not hygienic, and dirt goes everywhere)

It is also advised to wipe the camera lens with a cloth containing descaling liquid.

This will result in quicker connections, and makes the cow and thereafter the manager being happier.

Good descaling liquid always needs to work itself in, so make sure to let it sit for a while!

Do not immediately wipe off and rinse.

November:

Teatcup centre

The teat cup and also the pretreatment cup, fit perfectly if they go up right under the teat.

The distance from teat cup to camera is programmed.

If this is not quite the required 100% then the connection with a good teat position goes well. However, a cow with angled teats or teats of another abnormal state does not connect as well.

So, pay good attention if the teat is in the center and above the cup if it needs to connect properly.

If it is not sufficient, go to the touch screen and go to VMS Menu => Robot => Calibrate (third tab) execute “center cup”.

Otherwise, contact your mechanic.

October:

Separation milk with too much blood:

Milk which consists of too much blood can automatically be separated. You can activate this setting by going to the Cow Card, then VMS Settings and selecting Automatic Diversion.

What is too much blood? Only when values are indicated above 1000, the discoloration is visible to our eye.

A cow with colostrum milk, for example, easily reaches 3000 or higher.

Many farmers do not utilize this setting. Because, the milk of a colostrum cow they separate anyway.

However, a bruise, for example, by a blow from another cow or simply a vein blood spatter, also gives a lot of blood in the milk. And we’d rather not have that in the milk tank.

You could than consider to fill in the “Udder blood threshold”. To set it for an udder you always have to deal with dilution if it’s one teat. That is why it is the best place to fill it out, for example 2500 or higher.

At teat level, it is “dangerous”. An abundance of blood could be in a teat where there is very little amount milk. And then, all the milk from this cow will be separated.

Check the cow monitor to see from which cow you will not have milk in the tank. Then you know which level is for you too high.

By Batch Edit => Batch VMS Animal Settings it is easy to activate for all cows.

For every new cow you have to think about that later.

September:

Teat cleaning cup:

The Teat cleaning cup from DeLaval is often one of the reasons to choose DeLaval VMS.

The method of cleaning and stimulating:
“It polishes like my mother and encourages like the calf,”
is what the designers had in mind, and it turned out perfectly.

We must admit that we have not always cleaned as consistently in a milking stall and certainly not stimulated as consequent as our teat cleaning cup does.

And the dirt and the first rays are always separately drained from the milk collector.

But does the teat cleaning cup get the chance to deliver an excellence job?

• Is the outside also clean so the cup can’t move dirt and bacteria around?
• Is the rubber head not worn or torn?
• Does it make enough and firm strokes?
• Is there no kink and no tension on the hose?
• Does it sometimes miss a teat, or often?
• Is there too much space on the gripper?
• Is the water temperature good?

It is wise that you take it daily out of the cartridge and clean it.
Then there’s minima bacteria and dirt on it, and in the same time you check that “your employee” can deliver true craftsmanship!

August 2015:

Are black teats a problem?

Of course, black teats have their disadvantages.

But:

• Hair on the udders do too;
• A dirty camera does too;
• Lime scale on the camera does too;
• A dirty or worn sponge does too;
• Deviating teat shape or an abnormal udder shape does too;
• A narrow teat shape or a milk vein right along the teat does too;
• Cows with hoof problems are moving all the time;
• Technically seen, a bad VMS, extra space on the arm or that it moves to slow or too fast does too;
• The manure plate that doesn’t work well also has its disadvantages;
• Cows that have little room or too much room in the VMS does too;
• Old, or too big liners do too;
• To many flies do too.

One disadvantage is OK for the VMS, 2 or 3 can be OK to but it has to stop at some point…

Some cows simply have certain characteristics and there’s not much we can do about it.

If we can minimalize or deplete some of the disadvantages which are in our hand, we can make that as few as possible cows have problems .

We want, and can achieve the lowest number of incomplete milking’s!

So black teats or abnormal teats …, it isn’t a problem immediately but if it is a summation than it certainly will become one!

July 2015:

Match the hot weather.

Cows create sodium bicarbonate in saliva and thus good ruminating is therefore very important.
Both the creation and rumination decreases in hot weather like this past week.

Even rapid breathing caused by hot weather affects the production of bicarbonate.

That is why an extra addition to the ration in this weather is very useful!

Also, what you have learned about the quantity of drinking water: during warm days like these cows might drink 30-50 liters more!

Do you have plenty, clean water ready at their disposal?

June:

Many milkings between 20 – 100 days in laktation

When you decided to go for (a) robot(s) one of the reasons was probably that fresh cows can be milked more frequently.

We also think that fresh cows, e.g. cows between 20 and 100 days, be milked at least 3 times per day.

Do these cows on your farm reach the expected amount of 3 times a day?

It is very easy to check, for example in the list under “Milking Info” at “Milking Performance”.

We come across differences in dairies. Some have more than 4 milking’s for this group while others can barely have 2 milking’s. And all with the same robot brand..

A sick, weak, lame cow, fresh calved, or you know why, may have less than 3, no one else.
If there are too much, for example 5 out of 20, then we must look for the cause.

It often has to do with rumen fill or puncturing of roughage. So the operation of your roughage ration, or proportions.

But it can also, and perhaps in relation with the previous one, have to do with the hooves.

Also, it could be that there are too many of saturating feeding the ration. Or they can get so much at the feedfence they don’t need the concentrate in VMS.

And it may have to do with the stable layout, e.g. small waiting area, narrow walkways, on the place of the VMS is no fresh air, or to many flies, etc.

Or are the settings around milking permission not good?

Or is the robot too full?

Ask yourself which excuse your cow can make to go the robot less often…!?

May:

More kick-offs this year?

It seems that this past year more cows and heifers are being annoying in the VMS than other years. Heifers also seem to have more edema this year than previous years. Make sure that these animals don’t receive a ration that is too generous/rich or get too much salt before they calve, and if it is possible at all give them more space for exercise.
Notice if they are from the same family, or have the same dad.
When they come into the robot and they are annoyed, there are some possibilities: Even though we find precleaning at DeLaval great, we might need to postpone it for these animals (for example: a week).

If needed put the milking cups on manually the first few times. The next step is that you also manually attach the rear cups and let the machine do the front cups, but if the cow is calm than let the VMS attach all the cups. It is very important for these animals, especially when edema or a hard udder is present and is that they are being milked three times a day!
A full udder is then very painful and they connect the pain with the VMS so they will not to go to the VMS again if they get hurt!

Note also that liners and preparation cup are good. Maybe you could even let the feed come a little slower (from 100% back to 75%) so that the cows are kept busy a little bit longer with the food while being milked.

April:

Fly nuisance

It’s getting warmer again!

Are you ready for it?
So are the flies!

Not only are flies a nuisance during milking, they can also easily transfer diseases. What do you do to combat flies?

Some dairymen use maggot control on their grids, or hire a professional to inject the walls with chemicals.

A fan above the VMS could also freshen the air.
Cows love some wind in the summer, flies hate that!!

Fresh air around the VMS would improve conditions nonetheless.

If what you are doing is helping, don’t be hesitant to share your ideas, it could really help other dairymen!

March:

Easy daily cleaning

Do you have, within reach, water (cold and warm) spray, cleaners, (carwashing) brush and kitchen towels close behind your robot? Then chances are that the visit time per cow in the VMS declines by 30 seconds compared to those who don’t have cleaning materials within reach.

The equipment at hand invites you to keep the important parts clean, even if you are busy. And that invites the VMS to “do its very best!”.

February 2015:

Feeding settings, your choice how: Range from 0% automatic to 100% automatic

In Delpro the options in regard to the concentrate are extensive.

You now have the choice to full manually insert a concentrate amount, automatically 0%, to fully automatic, 100%, fed by Delpro. At 100% automatically feeding the computer assumes that all cows are equal, but you know better!

Hence, many farmers actually opt for a way between, semi-automatic. Then the cows that should have minimal modifications, the concentrate adjustments are done by the computer but the cows which need a larger adjustment will result in the computer asking the farmer to allow this adjustment or not.

It always start with inserting good feeding tables that fit the other ration appropriately.

Building up concentration after calving is always done best manually. (SEE T.O.T.M July 2013)

After ca. 50- 60 Days in Lactation you can manually check but also let the computer adjust the concentrate amount, for example every 7 days and only to the cows whose change isn’t greater than i.e. 30%. (Feed Table Parameters)

A cow that needs special treatment can be excluded from the automatic ration calculation. This is done by selecting “Exclude from automatic ration calculation” on the cow card.
It is for some cows wise to manually adjust the concentrate amount due to condition, setting her dry soon, diarrhea, etc.

These cows are so long excluded from automatic feed calculation until you unselect, so you should not forget them!

That is also the reason that when you check the Loglist on different Concentrate amounts you should also immediately check which cows are on the list and why. (Reports => Default Reports => Feeding => Ration Calculation Log)

You can do that most conveniently in the log list by clicking on ˜Reason” in the blue filter (funnel) top right hand side on the screen/window.

That is where you can see all of the possibilities. If you press “Animal is excluded from ration calculation” for example, you can see which cows are currently excluded. Or which are still building up or decreasing.

January 2015

Saving Power

On your dairy farms are a couple of “power consumers” who deserve attention.
For example the cooling unit, which is not always on a place you walk past daily.
Sometimes the cooling louvers are full of dust or dirt. Maybe the air filters aren’t clean. If this is the case, the cooling capacity could decrease by 30 to 50 percent which means the unit will have to turn on more often.
This results in a higher usage of power and also more wear and tear.

Also the compressor can, unnoticed, consume more power than necessary.

Since DeLaval switched over to more hydraulic system, the compressor doesn’t have be turned on as often. That clearly saves a lot of power.
But if, along the way, there’s a small leak somewhere or pressure is being tapped for something else, you will have to be extra alert for leaks.

Most of the time you don’t notice when the cooling unit or the compressor starts more often.

December:

Requirements to Teatdip

It’s December again and it can get colder so be extra alert when looking at the condition of  the teats.

Cows don’t like to be milked when they have sensitive and/or rough teats, especially when it’s cold. Both the milking technique and spraying have enormous influence on it.

And it will give more problems with cold and humid weather.

Also make sure the teats are hit well with the spray and if whether your disinfectant spray also has sufficient “skin care”.

Be sure to check other tips that have been placed on the site in previous years about what to do when it’s cold outside.

November:

Performance Index

On the Delpro Management program you can find in the Reports in Default Rapports => Milking Info => Milking Performance.

De last column is called the Performance Index. This index indicates how well the VMS attaches the teat cups to the cow. Above the 100 is good and above the 130 is better, above 150 is best. Under the 100 is not so good. If you sort on this column you will immediately recognize the highest and lowest cows. A cow gets a 0 if you often manually attach the teat cups.

The “lowest” cow needs to be checked to see if there aren’t other attachment options or adjusting the milk permission can give improvements. You might need to teach the cow again…(see Tipp January 2014),  it saves a lot of time and has big influence on robot’s capacity.

A few columns to the left show the average of how long a cow spends time in the VMS. These 2 obviously have something to do with each other!

October:

Play with the big differences in grass silage quality

A lot of roughage has been harvested this year and again with very different qualities.

It was possible to mow very early this year, and especially the first cut had a lot of energy in it and a lot of crude protein.

But, especially if it’s not really dry it is not good for the cow’s rumen.
They simply cannot handle it!

This grass silage with her fantastic contents can only be used when you mix it with other types of silage, and there’s been a lot of different silage harvested this year!

It will be better if you can dose special silages over a longer period of time for a year!

That is also with the grass you mow this fall, much crude protein, less energie and less tasty => less uptake!!

Discuss the feed rations well with your advisor, especially the distribution of it over the whole year if you (despite the top quality and large quantities of roughage) don’t want to “fool around” for a few months at the end.

September:

The corn harvesting season is coming.

Although we all have quite a lot of experience with corn and corn harvesting, things quite frequently go wrong.

If the corn isn’t harvested when it’s ripe, you can get acidosis, which will always result in less milk. This means that if you have a VMS, where the cows go to voluntarily and the cow doesn’t feel well, she won’t go often.
So, does the milk production take a dive twice as much as in traditional milking.

It easily declines the visits with 0.2 – 0.5 visits per cow per day….

If you also have harvested short or wet grass silage and have the problem mentioned earlier, then you know that the food ration simply isn’t to correct.

Also old corn silage can give rumen acidosis, so be cautious when feeding that to your cows.
Ripe, well chopped, right height and width associated with the feed-rate and sealing:

You decide a large part of your income in two days!

August:

Generator

Do you currently have a generator?

If so, when was the last time you tested it?

Storm and thunder season has arrived which means that the power could fall out.
But even in our current networks something could occasionally go wrong and then you won’t have any power.

That never works out well, certainly not with milking robots because they must run 24 hours a day!

July:

Disinfect before milking:

VMS not only offers the possibility of disinfecting after milking but also to spray, disinfect before.

This is illegal in the Netherlands because people are afraid of getting too much iodine in milk.

Most of the Mastitis Pathogens can be divided into contagious (they go via the skin or milk,
or flies(!)  from cow to cow) and contextual bacteria (in stalls, manure, straw, etc.).

Do you, for example, now en than have a cow with E-Coli Mastitis (contextually-related bacteria) then you should control or do the following;

1) clean resting boxes

2) clean barn, fresh, airy, etc.

3) Clean and disinfect the VMS arm several times a day with a hand spray with disinfection

4) Get “risky” cows to be sprayed, disinfected, before milking. Maybe in advance log in to your milking advisor if you are allowed to.

Disinfection before milking only works, or mainly does, with teat dips with sufficient and “fast” iodine like Pro-Active and Tri-Fender.

Bacteria are simply everywhere:
It’s an ongoing struggle to minimize their opportunities.

June:

Color of MDi line

To get down to the use of antibiotics you are having with DeLaval VMS clear advantage.
Not only because of the Milking Technology but also because of early reading problems.

De conductivity is measured accurately each milking session and per teat. All this information will be recorded in the Cow Monitoring. That way you can easily look back at the results and see if there is a new situation or it keeps occurring. You could also check to see the differences over the whole lactation or further history results of the cow when you have to treat or she has to be put dry, etc.

Especially the MDi over the past year, the lactation year, is very interesting to look back at. (See Tip of the Month: April 2013) The only problem is the color of the MDi line. The graph is unclear and gray. To fix this you will need to go the “Reports => “Customize graphs”.  After you search for “Conductivity and Blood Graph“ “Total”, double click on it, go to “Counter (udder). With “Series Color” you can choose a color that will stand out. Be sure to save all of your new settings.

Now look up an interesting cow in the Cow Monitoring, double click on it and search: “Yield, conductivity & Blood graph”. Down under you will see the MDi line in its new color. If you select to see the graph over a period of 30 days or a year, the line will be much more obvious!

May:

Provide dosing speed of concentrate.

Under “Device” you can tell VMS how fast to give concentrate to the cow.
How fast she has to feed depends on how much you feed and how fast your cows are.
It is also important that the cow’s visit to the VMS is pleasant as long as possible.
It’s no fun when the chunk is already gone, while she is only being pretreated.

If you have a high base ration at the feed fence and feed the cow a maximum of 4-5 kg per day then give the VMS a Dispensing Rate of 0,30 kilograms per minute.

If you have a low base ration and the highest cows need 8 kg in VMS then you should keep a feeding rate of 0,45/0,50.

Note that the average cow eats about 0.40 kg per minute. So if you use 0,50 as Dispensing Rate, then you have to use the possibility for the individual cow to reduce the “Consumption Rate” when, for example, she gets just a little “attraction chunk”.

The dosing of the feeding station should never actually be higher than 0,30 kg per minute.

April:

How long should a cow be put dry?

That depends on her condition, how much room she has or if she really needs to recover, etc.

Even more important, the cow has already to be treated towards a good condition long before she goes dry and the hooves are taken good care of. The share of roughage/structure towards the end of a lactation is much more important than the amount of energy to be prepared the best to do the next lactation well and give more and longer milk.

So make an “attention list” of the cows which are allowed to be put dry over 100 days. Take a look how they are doing, what’s their condition: should I change the ration, the concentration portions, or even Milk permission?

And which cows can be put dry next month: hoof trimming?

When put dry: how did it go this year with the production and conductivity, control is possible per teat, and the cell number? Which ones must I put dry with antibiotic or can the cow dry up without? (See Tip April 2013)

March:

Work routines

In  The Netherlands you get a Logbook,  a map, which you received at the start-up, and where the mechanics often put their visit-reports in.

In this logbook we put also a list “A few tips for good VMS usage” :  At the bottom is an error number of your VMS region etc. This list is very important.

It is often shown at the start-up and used as a guide to learn the first steps in successfully use of your new milking robot => Read and watch carefully again, does it still match?

For who doesn’t have this list (anymore), I have a digital copy called “Work routine”, (supplemented with what I think is important too) (-:

Please email me.

February

Three teat set well?

With a three-teat milking cow the fourth teat will gradually dry up en will gradually be less easy for the robot (lasers) to be seen or the lasers will no longer distinguish the teat from the udder.

Especially with drying up front-teats it can be difficult because the robot uses it’s positions to find the back-teats. You will see the robot arm searching for a long time or even on the wrong place.

On the COWCARD in “VMS Settings”  uncheck  “existing teat” and it the machine will find the other three teats a whole lot easier!

2014 January:

Save teat positions

It will take about 3-10 seconds after the robot arm has grabbed a milking cup and attaches a teat. That’s fine, nice and smooth and then the data from the teat positions are saved each time so that the VMS follows the changing udder and continues being smoothly connected.

If the time frame of the attachment exceeds 15 seconds, the teat positions will not correctly be saved because the positions aren’t quite right. The disadvantage is that the next time the VMS will start looking for the same false positions.

Keep a close eye on the cows which take too long. With most cows just teaching one more time is enough for it to work correctly again. For others, you may want to make use of the special teat settings, adjust Milking permission, or is it just  a three teat cow?