Three Times a Day Milking during the First Half of Lactation

Abstract

Three milking frequency treatments were compared: twice daily milking; thrice daily milking until milk dropped below 24 kg; thrice daily milking until milk dropped below 31 kg. Three time milking was at least 45 days but no more than 150 days. Cows (12 to 14 per group) were managed alike except for milking frequency. In early lactation, increased milking had little effect. With time the superiority in yields increased such that cows on three times for 150 days were outproducing two time cows by 20%. Cumulative milk yields were greater for the thrice groups than for the twice group by 5% at 56 days, 11 and 8% at 154 days, 11 and 9% at 182 days, and 10% at 280 days. Fat percentage, adjusted for previous lactation fat percentage, averaged .2 to .3% lower for the cows milked three times until 24 kig but only .1% lower for cows milked thrice until 31 kg. Increased yield was primarily from prolonged peak yield and less subsequent decline. Switching from three to two milkings decreased yield 6 to 8% in the 1st wk. However, three time milking had a positive carryover, apparently due to higher starting yield at the point at which they were switched.

Regulation of Mammary Development as It Relates to Changes in Milk Production Efficiency

“…Reports on the effects of frequent milking on lactation persistency, however, are inconsistent. Whereas several researchers have observed an increase in persistency in response to frequent milking (Pearson et al, 1979;Poole, 1982;Amos et al, 1985;Hillerton et al, 1990;Sorensen & Knight, 2002), others have reported no effect (Allen et al, 1986;Gisi et al, 1986). The discrepancy in results may be due to differences in the definition or measure of persistency, the nature and duration of frequent milking treatment, or to the physiological state of the animals (pregnancy status, stage of lactation).…”

Robotic milking and milk quality: effects on the cheese-making properties of milk

“…The effect of the third milking has been studied in the past by many researchers (Pearson et al, 1979;Gisi et al, 1986;Klei et al, 1997). The third milking seems to reduce fat percentage (Gisi et al, 1986;Klei et al, 1997), whereas a reduction to once-daily milking leads to an increase of fat content (Davis et al, 1999).…”

Milk Removal: The Key to Maintaining Milk Production and a Tool to Enhance Efficiency

“…Shortly after this report, similar observations were made in both cows (Edmunds, 1977;Moss & O'Grady, 1978;Thomas et al, 1978;Fulkerson, 1981) and heifers (Fulkerson et al, 1978;Peel et al, 1979). Pearson et al (1979) assigned cows to 3X for the first 143 d of lactation, followed by 2X thereafter. Although they did not report the full lactation curves, they measured milk yield for the entire lactation and reported that relative to 2X, cows that were milked 3X for the first 143 d of lactation produced more milk through 280 DIM (Pearson et al, 1979).…”

“…Pearson et al (1979) assigned cows to 3X for the first 143 d of lactation, followed by 2X thereafter. Although they did not report the full lactation curves, they measured milk yield for the entire lactation and reported that relative to 2X, cows that were milked 3X for the first 143 d of lactation produced more milk through 280 DIM (Pearson et al, 1979). Subsequently, it has been observed in numerous experiments that frequent milking during early lactation was associated with both acute and persistent increases in milk production (Table 5).…”