The Impacts of Visit Behavior to Milk Quality in Automated Milking Systems

Factors such as cow traffic design, feeding strategies, lactation stage and individual cow temperature influence visit behavior to robots and, in turn, milk quality outcomes. 

By Jakob Vogel, Senior Farm Management Support, Lely North America 

The benefits to automated milking systems are well documented when referenced to cow welfare, production potential and labor optimization. Although there are many facets to the optimization of these systems, one of the most undervalued is the parameters surrounding individual milking events and what draws the cows to the robot.

 A key factor to automated milking system success is remembering that dairy cows are creatures of habit. Cows develop their proper routines and social structure. To that effect, when considering an automated milking system, these routines need to be well respected and guided. Consider a conventional milking system, where the set milking times would determine when the cow could be milked and the milkers would determine the how. 

In an automated milking system, these concepts are often different. The robot decides the “how” during the milking event through various milk settings such as vacuum, pulsation, treatment time and lag time. However, we also rely on the robot to ensure the cows are being milked at the right time.

The key difference in these systems for optimization is that the cows’ routines change from a group level to an individual level. By optimizing and correctly understanding milk access settings, we can effectively manipulate the “when” for individual cows within the group compared to milking times historically used in a conventional milking system. With that, conventional milking times hide many variables including prep time and lag time, as differences between individual milkers can be difficult to detect, however often noticeable on the milk shipments. To take full advantage of the repetitive milking process, we need to ensure that the cow comes to each milking with similar fill.

Milk access settings are often curated to a group level based on production and stage of lactation with some standards of when a cow could or should be milked. Essentially, properly tuned milk access allows us to clearly define the high-producing cows within a group compared to the average animals. Why is this important? 

Although there is much documentation supporting the advantages of automated milking systems, there is a frequent negative perception that milk quality is compromised. This is often linked to inadequate or suboptimal parameters surrounding the milking robot, including milk access and milking interval regularity.

When analyzing milk quality factors, we can simply break this down and link them to visit behavior.

Milk components and free fatty acids

Butterfat remains one of the most important aspects of milk quality for farmer prosperity and profitability. However, if we do not allow for proper maturation of the fat globules during its synthesis, we increase the risk of having low volumes of milk with increased levels of free fatty acids. The premature extraction and physical manipulation of the milkfat globule can then impact smell, color, taste and physical characteristics of the milk such as frothing and coagulation.

With this in mind, access to the automated milking system should always respect a minimum six-hour interval between milking, especially for mid-lactation cows. The tradeoff between perceived milk gain versus increased risk of bimodality and free fatty acids levels remains a potential financial loss to the dairy.

Somatic cell count

Although stall management and bedding type must always be kept in consideration, the introduction of mastitis-causing bacteria can only be from the entry portal to the udder or the teat end sphincter. With this, we need to ensure that the milking event or visit to the robot is warranted and deserved. As mentioned previously, maintaining similar udder fill during the milking visits helps the cow receive a similar milking experience, thus facilitating milk letdown and completion of the harvest. However, if we are voluntarily opening the teat end and breaking down the keratin plug to poorly harvest milk from a low-producing cow, not only do we increase the cost of production for those liters of milk, but we also increase the risk of overmilking and give further opportunity for pathogens to be introduced into the udder.

Once we have optimized the milking times and gotten the right cows to the robot at the right time, additional milk settings are proper for the herd in question. Pre-treatment settings and brush contact with the teats will optimize the milk flow profile of the cow. With that, take-off settings should be reviewed and optimized. Overmilking over time can lead to hyperkeratosis on the teat ends, which can harbor pathogens close to their food source.

In summary, although milk quality can be exceptionally complex, dairies that have adopted automated milking systems have more data to make smart decisions for their animals, while improving health, profitability and milk quality. Often, small adjustments or re-alignments to robot access and settings can yield great dividends and decrease cost of production, all while improving the milking experience for the cow and increasing overall herd production.

Want to learn more? 

Lely is dedicated to making farmers’ lives easier with innovative solutions for dairy farming. We offer cutting-edge robotic systems designed to enhance efficiency with milking, feeding or manure management. Learn more about The way to dairy™ in this webinar.