The effect of pasture quantity temporal variation on milking robot utilization

Area of Science:

• Animal Science
• Agricultural Engineering
• Dairy Production Systems

Background:

• Pasture-based automatic milking systems (AMS) often experience reduced robot utilization (RU) during early morning hours.
• Novel feeding strategies are needed to encourage consistent cow traffic and mitigate low RU periods.
• Understanding cow behavior and feed intake patterns is key to optimizing AMS performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of three distinct pasture allocation methods on robot utilization (RU) patterns over a 24-hour period.
• To investigate if manipulating the quantity of pasture offered influences voluntary cow traffic and milking frequency.
• To identify optimal feeding strategies for improving RU in pasture-based AMS.

Main Methods:

• Conducted an experiment with 133 cows using three Lely Astronaut A3 robotic milking units at a research farm in Australia.
• Implemented three treatments varying the proportion of pasture feed offered during specific access periods (A: 2030-0400h, B: 0400-1330h, C: 1330-2030h).
• Treatments included a control (equal proportion), a day-focused allocation, and a night-focused allocation, with data collected over 42 days.

Main Results:

• Robot utilization varied significantly between treatments, with the night treatment showing higher RU at certain times and lower RU during late night/early morning hours.
• The proportion of cows milking between 0000 and 0600 h was lower in the night treatment (25.8%) compared to control (43.3%) and day (45.3%) treatments.
• Herd-average daily pasture intake remained consistent across all treatments (10.5 kg DM).

Conclusions:

• Varying the quantity of pasture offered can manipulate robot utilization patterns in pasture-based AMS.
• The timing of pasture allocation, in addition to quantity, likely plays a critical role in resolving early morning RU dips.
• Future research should focus on combining optimal timing and quantity of pasture allocation to enhance RU in AMS.