Dairy Management: time to think about 13 times milking

As we head into August, some farmers are asking about 13 milkings, so they can get a Sunday evening off and not have to get a relief milker in.

Teagasc research has found no significant drop in yield from skipping one of the milkings in the week.

In fact, new research at Teagasc on milking cows 10 times in seven days is showing that milk yields are remarkably stable with a relatively small drop.

From that, you can say that milking 13 times in seven days will have an even smaller impact.

Grass is key

The key thing is to make sure cows have enough grass and are content on the evening they are not being milked.

Some farmers will do this by giving them a new paddock for two or three grazings on Sunday morning so that they are content.

In other cases, the farmer sets up the Batt Latch (timed-release gate handle) on a strip wire in the field and this is timed to drop the wire at the normal milking time, so the cows move to the next section, which distracts them from milking.

At this stage in the year, with breeding at an end and most of the main jobs completed, farmers need to recharge the batteries and take some breaks.

This applies to people working on the farm too. The hard work in spring needs to be balanced out and taking Sunday evenings off for the next few months is one part of achieving that.