Kevin McGrade
This is my fifth year milking once a day (OAD) on my farm. I started this year on 16 July and will only start milking twice a day again in September. Heifers are due to start calving at the end of August and cows will start calving again in September this year. A compact calving profile and the correct cow type are critical if OAD milking is to be successful. The advantage for me is the reduced work load associated with only milking once a day. I’m still busy on the farm but it gives me a chance to get other jobs sorted. Jobs such as drainage, fencing and reseeding can get more of my time now.
I also have the option of a holiday which is easier to organise with only one milking per day to get relief staff for. From a cost perspective, yes there is a saving in farm energy usage and chemical, but this is not the driver for me. For me, it’s labour management. Building in a break for myself and other family members is very important on our family farm. It simply reduces the workload for a month before calving starts in September.
From a herd management perspective, cow condition can be improved much more easily with OAD milking, and it is much cheaper than feeding additional concentrate to gain condition. Currently the herd is averaging 10 litres per cow, 4.88% BF, and 3.93%protein. No concentrate is being fed and cow condition is on target for the herd. I always get a lift in milk butterfat and protein, which helps with my final milk price. In terms of yield loss I don’t see any loss in output, but you must remember all my cows are in late lactation now.
Since the weekend just past, 41% of the herd is dry. My calving interval is 380 days with the herd all calving in 3.5 months from September to mid-December. I can see a big advantage for cow condition coming from a reduction in walking distance with OAD. At this stage of the year grass growth will slow down on our heavy-soil farm. This means more area is needed to supply grass, and therefore more walking for the herd. The furthest paddocks on the farm are a half mile from the parlour. This means the cows have a mile less walking on OAD, and I’ll save 45 minutes gathering cows for the evening milking.
McGrade 2015 herd performance
Yield 6,501
BF 4.61
Protein 3.54
SCC 105
Weeks calving 16
Calving interval 380
I appreciate OAD milking is not for everyone, and also not every herd could successfully do it. The herd must be managed as one group with a compact calving profile. Splitting the herd and milking a proportion on OAD creates more work and different cow groups to manage, and still milking twice per day.
Monitoring cows at the start of OAD is very important. I will pre-strip the herd for the first week when I start OAD just looking for mastitis and monitoring cows for any discomfort. My SCC will increase in the first few weeks of OAD, this year the SCC was 148 when we started OAD and it increased to near 300 in the first week. The SCC is coming down each week and I don’t expect any increase over the coming weeks.
Robin Clements
The big advantage of OAD milking is from a labour perspective – getting a break from the constant tie of two milkings per day is a great feeling. It gives you a chance to get a short break and recharge the batteries. I moved to OAD just two weeks ago and yields are down 2 litres per cow. To be honest, yield started falling before I moved to OAD, and this is more related to the stage of lactation than moving to OAD.
In the first week of OAD my butterfat increased from 4.25% to 4.51%, and protein from 3.48% to 3.61%. Cows are very content with the 24-hour allocation of grass and are not accumulating at the gate for evening milking. Staff morale is up and I get a chance to plan for the future.
Clements 2015 herd performance
Yield 7150
BF 4.11
Protein 3.30
SCC 146
Weeks calving 19
Calving interval 391
Read more
Grass+ dairy: Average growth good, but big variations
Irish agricultural college round-up
Kevin McGrade
This is my fifth year milking once a day (OAD) on my farm. I started this year on 16 July and will only start milking twice a day again in September. Heifers are due to start calving at the end of August and cows will start calving again in September this year. A compact calving profile and the correct cow type are critical if OAD milking is to be successful. The advantage for me is the reduced work load associated with only milking once a day. I’m still busy on the farm but it gives me a chance to get other jobs sorted. Jobs such as drainage, fencing and reseeding can get more of my time now.
I also have the option of a holiday which is easier to organise with only one milking per day to get relief staff for. From a cost perspective, yes there is a saving in farm energy usage and chemical, but this is not the driver for me. For me, it’s labour management. Building in a break for myself and other family members is very important on our family farm. It simply reduces the workload for a month before calving starts in September.
From a herd management perspective, cow condition can be improved much more easily with OAD milking, and it is much cheaper than feeding additional concentrate to gain condition. Currently the herd is averaging 10 litres per cow, 4.88% BF, and 3.93%protein. No concentrate is being fed and cow condition is on target for the herd. I always get a lift in milk butterfat and protein, which helps with my final milk price. In terms of yield loss I don’t see any loss in output, but you must remember all my cows are in late lactation now.
Since the weekend just past, 41% of the herd is dry. My calving interval is 380 days with the herd all calving in 3.5 months from September to mid-December. I can see a big advantage for cow condition coming from a reduction in walking distance with OAD. At this stage of the year grass growth will slow down on our heavy-soil farm. This means more area is needed to supply grass, and therefore more walking for the herd. The furthest paddocks on the farm are a half mile from the parlour. This means the cows have a mile less walking on OAD, and I’ll save 45 minutes gathering cows for the evening milking.
McGrade 2015 herd performance
Yield 6,501
BF 4.61
Protein 3.54
SCC 105
Weeks calving 16
Calving interval 380
I appreciate OAD milking is not for everyone, and also not every herd could successfully do it. The herd must be managed as one group with a compact calving profile. Splitting the herd and milking a proportion on OAD creates more work and different cow groups to manage, and still milking twice per day.
Monitoring cows at the start of OAD is very important. I will pre-strip the herd for the first week when I start OAD just looking for mastitis and monitoring cows for any discomfort. My SCC will increase in the first few weeks of OAD, this year the SCC was 148 when we started OAD and it increased to near 300 in the first week. The SCC is coming down each week and I don’t expect any increase over the coming weeks.
Robin Clements
The big advantage of OAD milking is from a labour perspective – getting a break from the constant tie of two milkings per day is a great feeling. It gives you a chance to get a short break and recharge the batteries. I moved to OAD just two weeks ago and yields are down 2 litres per cow. To be honest, yield started falling before I moved to OAD, and this is more related to the stage of lactation than moving to OAD.
In the first week of OAD my butterfat increased from 4.25% to 4.51%, and protein from 3.48% to 3.61%. Cows are very content with the 24-hour allocation of grass and are not accumulating at the gate for evening milking. Staff morale is up and I get a chance to plan for the future.
Clements 2015 herd performance
Yield 7150
BF 4.11
Protein 3.30
SCC 146
Weeks calving 19
Calving interval 391
Read more
Grass+ dairy: Average growth good, but big variations
Irish agricultural college round-up
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