Identifying, addressing and seeing results
To address this, Michael suggested restricting robot access to cows in the mid-lactation group. From April until May, daily robot visits for this group decreased from an average of 2.8 visits per day to 2.6 visits.
“As the number of milkings per day was reduced, this group of cows saw a steady increase in milk per milking. Their overall daily production also remained largely the same during this time period, despite the reduction in milkings.”
However, Michael explains that the real benefit was seen in the fresh cow group with their daily robot visits increasing from an average of 2.5 visits per day to 3.4 visits across the same time period.
“As we restricted the mid-lactation group, the fresh cows were able to visit the robots more frequently. These cows were able to increase their cake intake, which then had a positive impact on their milk per milking and their overall daily production."
“In just two months we’ve seen a substantial improvement in fresh cow daily production, rising from just under 40kg per day to pushing 50kg. This is particularly impressive as this was achieved just from a simple change to robot settings, which we identified using the Robot Analysis Programme.”
Michael believes that the tool has huge potential to help other farms with their feed efficiency.
“The Robot Analysis Programme is a really exciting tool, which can benefit all of our automated dairy unit customers. At a time when input costs are continuing to rise, a tool such as this which can improve feed optimisation and help farmers make the most of what they already have, is invaluable.”
