Automatic milking a welcome boost, but not the total answer
But significant questions remain relating to the ability to manage pasture, changes to farm infrastructure and capital investment.
This system offers possibilities for precision management of individual cows in a herd, freeing up labour and allowing the cow greater control of her activities.
The opportunity to research AM was provided by the Fullwood company which installed a Merlin AM unit at the Dairygold farm at Moorepark.
There were 72 cows (36 Friesian, 16 Jersey Friesian cross and 20 Norwegian Red) on the AM system during 2012, on a 24-hectare milking platform.
The land area was divided into three grazing sections, which were further divided into 1ha paddocks.
Grass allocation is critical to optimal cow visits to the AM unit.
A cow visit to the AM unit is integrated into the cow movement from one grazing section to the next.
Cows grazed to an average post-grazing sward height of 4.4 cm, and all cows received about 1.4 kg of concentrate feed per 24-hour period during most of the lactation.
An average milk yield of 4,500 litres and milk solids (MS) yield of 351 kg/cow lactation was achieved. Total milk volume and MS produced by the AM unit was 284,592 litres and 22,834 kg, respectively.
The average number of milkings per day was 108, ranging from 125 to 80.
The average number of milkings per cow per day was 1.8, ranging from 2 to 1.5.
Each milking averaged seven minutes. Average milk somatic cell count (SCC) of the herd was 133,000 cells/ml and the herd average total bacterial count (TBC) was 18,000 cells/ml.
Researchers concluded that successful integration of AM into a grass system was achieved.
However, the economic viability of AM will determine how widely the technology will be adopted.
