Relative motivations of dairy cows to be milked or fed in a Y-maze and an automatic milking system

Prescott, N. B.; Mottram, Toby; Webster, A. J. F.

doi:10.1016/s0168-1591(97)00112-3

Cited by 88 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Given the choice of consuming feed or being milked, cows will choose the option to consume feed (Prescott et al, 1998). As such, feed is the most important influence of voluntary cow traffic in both indoor and pasturebased AMS.…”

Section: Feed Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As cow feeding activity is the main motivator for voluntary cow traffic to and from the milking robots (Prescott et al, 1998;Kerrisk, 2010) and appears to be linked with milking robot utilization, ways to alter the number and timing of feed allocations, both forage and concentrate, to achieve an evenly distributed feeding pattern throughout 24 h is a clear opportunity for improving robot utilization for indoor AMS and for future research, particularly on pasture-based AMS.…”

Section: Feed Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Review: Milking robot utilization, a successful precision livestock farming evolution

John

Clark

Freeman

et al. 2016

animal

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Automatic milking systems (AMS), one of the earliest precision livestock farming developments, have revolutionized dairy farming around the world. While robots control the milking process, there have also been numerous changes to how the whole farm system is managed. Milking is no longer performed in defined sessions; rather, the cow can now choose when to be milked in AMS, allowing milking to be distributed throughout a 24 h period. Despite this ability, there has been little attention given to milking robot utilization across 24 h. In order to formulate relevant research questions and improve farm AMS management there is a need to determine the current knowledge gaps regarding the distribution of robot utilization. Feed, animal and management factors and their interplay on levels of milking robot utilization across 24 h for both indoor and pasture-based systems are here reviewed. The impact of the timing, type and quantity of feed offered and their interaction with the distance of feed from the parlour; herd social dynamics, climate and various other management factors on robot utilization through 24 h are provided. This novel review draws together both the opportunities and challenges that exist for farm management to use these factors to improved system efficiency and those that exist for further research.Keywords: automatic milking system, feeding behaviour, robot idle time, grazing, PLF (precision livestock farming) ImplicationsMilking robots have revolutionized the dairy industry with farmers achieving high levels of robot utilization obtaining greater returns on asset. The first installations were typically associated with 'indoor' systems and nearby grazing fields. Nowadays there is an increasing interest regarding the integration of robots into larger scale pasture-based dairy systems. This review explores the published literature on both 'indoor' and 'pasture-based' dairy systems in relation to milking robot utilization. IntroductionRobotic milking systems have revolutionized the dairy industry. The first dairy cow was milked, more or less without traditional human involvement, in 1986 with a robotic milking box at the experimental farm de Waiboerhoeve, Lelystad, the Netherlands by Gascoigne Melotte, following the US Patent 4010714A (Notsuki and Ueno, 1977). A system from the company Prolion was installed on the experimental farm IMAG-DLO Duiven, the Netherlands, in 1990 and on a commercial dairy in 1992. More institutes and companies became active in the development of robotic milking systems in the nineties as described by Kuipers and Rossing (1996). Since that time until 2011, automatic milking systems (AMS) have been installed on over 10 000 farms worldwide (de Koning, 2011). These installations are predominantly for 'indoor' systems where cows are generally 'housed' in barns and offered a partial mixed ration (PMR) in the feeding alley and grain-based concentrate supplement either in the milking unit or in a nearby concentrate self-feeder. While there have been numerous AMS installations in indoo...

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Section: Feed Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Feed Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review: Milking robot utilization, a successful precision livestock farming evolution

John

Clark

Freeman

et al. 2016

animal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Voluntary cow traffic creates the possibility of obtaining greater milking frequencies and consequently greater daily milk yields (Garcia and Fulkerson, 2005;Stockdale, 2006). Feed is commonly used as an incentive to encourage cows to move around the system (Prescott et al, 1998a and1998b), therefore timing, placement and size of feed allocations are managed in order to have a positive impact on cow traffic.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Animal behavior and pasture depletion in a pasture-based automatic milking system

Lyons

Kerrisk

Dhand

et al. 2014

Animal

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In pasture-based automatic milking systems (AMS), feed is the main incentive that can be managed to encourage reliable and consistent voluntary and distributed cow traffic. Modifying timing, placement and size of feed allocations is expected to have an effect on cow behavior that could avoid the occurrence of extended milking intervals, which have a negative effect on milk yield. Therefore, behavioral studies provide information on how cows modify their actions under different management regimes and can help explain the impact of those regimes. Behavioral observations were conducted in spring 2011 at the FutureDairy AMS research farm, as part of a study where a herd of 175 cows was split into two groups that received supplementary feed either before (PRE), or immediately after (POST) milking. In addition, all cows were offered access to two daily pasture allocations. Observations were conducted in the pasture allocation on 15 focal cows from each treatment group during four periods of 24 h to detect presence and behavior (grazing, ruminating, idling and other) every 15 min. In addition, bite rate and pasture biomass were measured every hour. Overall, despite the finding that more POST cows than PRE cows entered the pasture allocation during the first 8 h of active access, there was no difference in the total proportion of cows that had gained access by the end of the active access period (average 68% for both treatments). Cows in the PRE treatment started exiting the pasture allocation just 6 h after entering, compared with 8 h for POST cows, although their behaviors in the pasture allocation did not differ. Behaviors and bite rate were more dependent on pasture biomass than on supplementary feeding management.

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“…It has previously been shown that the willingness to search for a 'reward' could be affected by the cost involved in obtaining it (Prescott et al, 1998a). As such, it is possible that feed offered in the paddock, whether it is pasture or a forage crop, is too far removed from the act of milking to be an incentive for volunteering for milking, although the distance at which forage ceases to be an incentive is currently unknown.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Feed is commonly used as an incentive to encourage cows to traffic around AMS, with cow motivation for feed reported to be greater than that of milking (Prescott et al, 1998a). Offering feed during milking or in the dairy facility has been linked to increases in voluntary cow traffic in pasture-based systems (Lyons et al, 2013b;Scott et al, 2014), although varying the quantity of feed offered during milking was reported to have no effect on improving cow traffic in indoor systems (Halachmi et al, 2005;Bach et al, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Offering a forage crop at pasture did not adversely affect voluntary cow traffic or milking visits in a pasture-based automatic milking system

Scott

Kerrisk

García

2016

Animal

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Feed is a strong incentive for encouraging cows in automatic milking systems (AMS) to voluntarily move around the farm and achieve milkings distributed across the 24 h day. It has been reported that cows show preferences for some forages over others, and it is possible that offering preferred forages may increase cow traffic. A preliminary investigation was conducted to determine the effect of offering a forage crop for grazing on premilking voluntary waiting times in a pasture-based robotic rotary system. Cows were offered one of two treatments (SOYBEAN or GRASS) in a cross-over design. A restricted maximum likelihood procedure was used to model voluntary waiting times. Mean voluntary waiting time was 45.5 ± 6.0 min, with no difference detected between treatments. High and mid-production cows spent <44 min/milking in the premilking yard compared with >55 min/milking for low-production cows, whereas waiting time increased as queue length increased. Voluntary waiting time was 23% and 80% longer when cows were fetched from the paddock or had a period of forced waiting before volunteering for milking, respectively. The time it took cows to return to the dairy since last exiting was not affected by treatment, with a mean return time of 13.7 ± 0.6 h. Although offering SOYBEAN did not encourage cows to traffic more readily through the premilking yard, the concept of incorporating forage crops in AMS still remains encouraging if the aim is to increase the volume or quantity of home-grown feed rather than improving cow traffic.

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Relative motivations of dairy cows to be milked or fed in a Y-maze and an automatic milking system

Cited by 88 publications

References 12 publications

Review: Milking robot utilization, a successful precision livestock farming evolution

Review: Milking robot utilization, a successful precision livestock farming evolution

Animal behavior and pasture depletion in a pasture-based automatic milking system

Offering a forage crop at pasture did not adversely affect voluntary cow traffic or milking visits in a pasture-based automatic milking system

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