When and how to collect cows?

You don’t want to teach the cows to wait for someone to pick them up. So when do they stay away too long? After how many hours do you pick them up?
It is very important to look at lactation days and expected milk yield.
And based on her experience with the milking robots, does she know the game and will eventually get there on her own, not too late.
Cows with many lactation days may come less often than fresh cows.
At least if the cell count / conductivity is low it is not a big problem.
If the new-milk cows don’t come often enough, something is simply wrong.

It is not good if fresh cows stay away for more than 10 hours!

And pay attention again to the new heifers, the animals with the least robot experience, which must be taught intensive robot visits as soon as possible after calving.
They must also visit the VMS within 10 hours

By picking up cows at irregular times, you teach them not to wait for the farmer to pick them up.

And the collection round always start from the robot’s exit or where the cows return to the stable after a robot visit.
Then they are much calmer and otherwise you will first scare cows away and have them come back later.
Take the manure scraper in your hand to use along the boxes and as an extended arm and you have done 2 rounds in one go.

Replace milk filter?

Sequence:  Press the yellow button, then wash your hands. If they are clean, the button will now light up and the filter can be replaced.
Or turn the green button on Duofilter.
Replacing the milk filter with clean hands ensures that the outside of the filter remains very clean. And that’s “the tank milk side!”

It is useful if there is a water hose nearby so that you can easily rinse the edges and thread + knob around the filter canister. When it’s easy, it always happens. And that is necessary because the edges and button must also remain clean.

How quickly do your heifers get over three milkings?

It is very important, and also significant, that your heifers quickly reach more than 3 milkings per day after calving.

You can see this under “Animal” and then click on the Lactation Overview under Herd Charts. For this overview on the right, only check the two checkboxes for the milkings, see picture.

If all goes well, older cows that are already familiar with the robot will have over three milkings per day within a week.

Heifers still have to learn it and so it can take longer.
The sooner they are above 3 milkings, the better.
That depends, among other things, on this:

• How healthy and vital are they after calving?
• How soon after calving do you bring them to the robot?
• How much time do you put into learning
• What is the occupancy rate at the robot(s)?
• How much space is there around the entrance of the robot, can they access it if older cows are also walking around in the (waiting) area in front of the robot?

Daily cleaning, also slides.

Daily cleaning and checking of the milk cups, hoses and teat clean cup also includes rinsing / brushing and checking the slides, the guides, along which the milk hoses are pulled up and down.
Dirt also easily accumulates here, making it increasingly difficult for the robotarm to get the cups  to the right place.
This can easily cause incomplete milkings!
And of course, keep track of the rubber flap that always catches the milk cups.

Cleaning the camera?
Technician’s tip: Fold up a piece of kitchen roll the size of the camera glass, soak it with a little acid and “stick” it to the glass, let it sit for 2 – 3 minutes, then wipe off and rinse the camera well.

Clean teat liners.

When the milking robot is on a flat floor and there is no pit for it, for example, it sometimes happens that during the back-flush, which is the rinse after each milking, the teat cups, or actually teat liners, touch the ground.

That place cannot always be kept clean all day and night, so it is not very hygienic.

A solution is to put something simple here that ensures that the teat cups do not touch the ground and that is easy to keep clean.