Robots and Grazing.

For a successfully grazing policy on farms with milking robots, you have to keep a few rules in mind:

• They start learning to graze when they are young!
• The keyword for grazing is “Early” :  Early in year, early in the morning and early (young) learning is very important for succes
• Keep in mind what is achievable, a lot of grass in the cow and feeding little in the stall, or is grass just a dessert, a meadow as a runway, play meadow and then feed a lot in the stalls.
  This really has to do with the amount of hectares grass and parcels round the farmhouse you have in relation to cows.
  If you overestimate this relationship, the smallest change in weather or the length of season will mess with your plans.
• Cows constantly need to be triggered to move: if they are in the stalls, they should also want to go to the meadow and if they are in the meadow they should want to go the robot.
  This can be achieved when you give the cows fresh grass every day and wait to add new feed in the stalls when they are outside.
• An ideal situation is one where they would go straight to the robots when they come in the stall and go to the troughs after they come out of the robot.
• A meadow selection port, Smartgate,  could make it easier.
• The path to the pasture should be wide (2-way path) to accommodate easy transportation of cows. It should be at least so wide that the dominant cows don’t have the chance to stop other cows from moving.
• Drinking water during warm weather is also crucial. It would be ideal to place the water alongside the path to the stall.

“Stichting Weidegang” (Foundation Grazing), from University Wageningen Holland, has elaborated on 5 possibilities, with the correct policy added to it.

It is assumed that the average cow eats about 15KG of dry feed per day.

Possibility 1 is the maximum grazing grass, which means 13 KG Dry Matter of grass and 2 kg of roughage in the stable.

Possibility 5 is the minimum grazing grass which means 2KG DM grass and 13KG roughage added in the stall.

The possibilities 2,3 and 4 includes policies gradually feeding less grass and adding more feed in the stall.

From nature behavior the cow prefers to eat most when she finds herself in the meadow in the morning and at dusk. And then, safely hidden, ruminating under a tree.

Finding ways to play with these times by giving more fresh grass or picking the cows up at certain times makes grazing more fun.
The tree has now been replaced by the roof of the barn.

If the weather is hot than you can use these times by having the cows graze in the mornings and evenings instead of during the day.

Settings around cleaning after separation milk.

When milk can’t go into the milk tank, you have four options: the milk goes into one of the three cans or directly into the drainage.

It is possible to select different types of cleaning for different situations.
DeLaval thinks it is safest to select the main cleaning after a milking containing antibiotics.

There are two possibilities when it comes to separation milk: Separation 1 and 2.The milk programmed as Separation 1 is directed to Can 1 and Separation 2 to Can 2.

There are also two possibilities for colostrum: Colostrum 1 and  Colostrum 2 go to Can 3 but you can select a different cleaning program.

It can be useful to select Separation 1 or Colostrum 1 for light cases, with no penicillin but you also don’t want the milk in the tank. (Colostrum from first calving cows, a cow that has been dry for full period, calf drinking milk, etc.)

So, “1” with a simple cleaning. And separation “2” and colostrum “2” for heavier cases (after antibiotic treatment, been dry for a too short period of time) which need a heaver cleaning.

In principle the “1”s can endure a milder cleaning than a main cleaning. The “2” would need a main cleaning.

Drainage milk will always be of bad quality or infectious for other cows and should always be programmed with the main cleaning.

“1” for easy and “2” for hard is easy to remember and also easy to explain to employees and substitutes within your dairy.

In practice, many dairy farmers select a lighter cleaning after a penicillin case because the main cleaning takes them up too much time.

I hope you understand that DeLaval perceives this to be very risky!
Using your touchscreen, you can milk cows with deviating milk consecutively. After this, VMS cleans with the biggest cleaning programmed, or you can turn on the main cleaning. This is safest and also costs the least amount of time.

Feeding cows  from 100 days before setting them dry

De biggest feeding mistakes are made in the transition period or at the end of lactation.

Truthfully, the last 100 days before drying of, to ensure the cow obtains the correct feed, it is more important to correlate her ration to stamina and activity levels than to how much she is producing. A farmer has a better view of this than a computer..
Also the first experiences with the new Body Condition Score (BCS) camera show that it pays off to adjust certain measures and so correcting the feed amount in this period.

Gather information from cows who are ca. 100 days before setting dry, or 130-230 days after the last insemination (if you did not do or register pregnancy tests), about the cow’s stamina, production, feed ration and VMS visits.
Does she need more condition (energy feed) or has she already too much? More protein or less? More…..?, or less…..?

It can be useful to make yourself a list that shows the production, feed ration and within how many days she’s to be set dry  in one list.

I get my copy from the list “Feeds Consumption” (Right mouse click) and paste it to “My Lists”. Then, with “Show/Hide Designer” you can choose in the category “Cow Calendar” the column “Days until Dry” and you can add “Number of Milkings” from the category “Milking”, by dragging it (Left mouse hold and drag) to your list.

The newest versions of DelPro even makes it possible to color these cows, e.g. less than 100 days before drying off, so that they stand out!

If these cows are visible, you’ll increase their longevity!

Manure plate

The manure plate in the VMS is a crucial component of the system. Not only does it make sure that the VMS’s floor stays clean because it drains urine and manure which keeps the box cleaner, but is also an important indicator to track a cow’s movements to ensure the system attaches the teats more easily.

Note that the cow should stand against the manure plate to ensure it moves with it. Also make sure that the cow does not have too much or too little space. This way, you know for sure that the manure plate gives the VMS arm accurate information.

De manure plate rests on the dirtiest and most vulnerable spot of the VMS. It moves close to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There’s a chance that the plate does not work properly by following the movements of the cow which in return yields inaccurate information.

You can spot this when the cow pee’s. You’ll notice that the manure plate does not fall (quick enough) forward. Often, the spring is worn out or stretched out. There’s also the possibility that the rod is bent, or too dirty, or plate too dirty.

There are also farms that have a bin around the manure plate, which is very clean and tidy, but you do not see if manure plate moves correctly. It is very important then to check regularly!

Ration, Christmasfeeling by cows.

During the holiday break, Christmas and New Year, did you eat well and maybe too much? Did you also notice that afterwards you can take a nice, longer than usual, nap? And going a little later to the barn because it was somewhat more difficult to start with the chores?  That’s what we call: “the Christmas feeling.”

Cows have that same feeling when the ration is appetizing but not well balanced. For example: by proportionally having too much starch or other saturating, slow products. Additionally, a ration could also be badly balanced due to fast products that gives the same feeling. Moreover, it could also happen because there wasn’t good and enough feed in the troughs for a few hour(s) so they eat for a while too little and after feed finally arrived then the cows eat too much or too fast.

Also the feeling could develop when a cow changes from group with very different tasty rations occur often to fluctuating feeding.

In conclusion, we notice one severe farms this “Christmas Feeling” a long time! To solve this issue, you need a good ration and feeding-rules to keep the cows healthier and active over a longer period of time.

Read the herd’s behavior: you can see discrepancies in the number of times they visit the VMS, where the cows are and how they act in the barn or how they ruminate.