Voluntary automatic milking in combination with grazing of dairy cows

Lauwere, C.C. Ketelaar-de; Ipema, A.H.; Ouwerkerk, E.N.J. van; Hendriks, Margriet M. W. B.; Metz, J.H.M.; Noordhuizen, J.P.T.M.; Schouten, W.G.P.

doi:10.1016/s0168-1591(99)00027-1

Cited by 58 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Like many authors before (Miller and Wood-Gush, 1991;Krohn et al, 1992;Ketelaar-de Lauwere et al, 1999), we found that synchronization of lying behaviour is a rather constant and important phenomenon in a group of cows.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

A note on overdispersion as an index of behavioural synchrony: a pilot study in dairy cows

Raussi

Jauhiainen

Saastamoinen

et al. 2011

Animal

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We developed a method for studying the synchrony of behaviour based on calculations of overdispersion of a binomial process. The lying behaviour of cows was investigated under two different housing units inside the same barn. The first unit housed 30 cows undergoing conventional milking and the second unit housed 27 cows undergoing automatic milking. The lying behaviour of the cows was observed over 3 weeks in 12 periods of 6 h each. Every 5 min, we counted the number of cows lying down in the cubicles. As external cues, like feeding and conventional milking, can promote synchrony in dairy cows, we expected that cows conventionally milked would show more behavioural synchrony than automatically milked cows. Cows lied down synchronously in both units (overdispersion 1.67, P , 0.01). Lying synchrony tended to be slightly bigger in automatically than in conventionally milked cows (overdispersion 1.76 v. 1.58, P 5 0.09), although the proportion of cows lying down was on average greater in conventionally than in automatically milked cows (60.7% v. 45.6%). This suggests that synchronized lying behaviour in cows is a constant phenomenon that depends on social facilitation rather than on external cues. The overdispersion index appears to be a useful tool for studying the synchrony of animal behaviour when observations are made at the group level.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

A note on overdispersion as an index of behavioural synchrony: a pilot study in dairy cows

Raussi

Jauhiainen

Saastamoinen

et al. 2011

Animal

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“…In this regard, Australian AMS farmers in areas of high temperature commonly provide cows with shaded housing, often associated with a feed pad, for relief from the sun during the peak of summer. A significant reduction in the duration cows spend at pasture was observed by Ketelaar-de Lauwere et al (1999) as Black Globe Humidity Index (BGHI) increased in an indoor system offering cows 24 h access to pasture during summer. Lessire et al (2015) also observed this behaviour, with 'mild heat stress' increasing milking frequency and milk yield in an indoor AMS offering cows 24 h access to pasture during summer, as cows moved to, and remained in, the barn during the hotter periods of the day; though the mean temperature of the 'mild heat stress' period was 23.1°C below the aforementioned 25°C threshold.…”

Section: Animal Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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“…In indoor AMS, where cows had partial access to pasture, most of the behavioral research has been conducted to understand cows' adaptability to AMS and the consequence it could have on animal welfare ( Ketelaar-de Lauwere et al, 1999 and. Those studies found that available grazing time caused no difference in lying time (Ketelaar-de Lauwere et al, 1999), while sward height had no effect on total time spent grazing (Ketelaar-de Lauwere et al, 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Those studies found that available grazing time caused no difference in lying time (Ketelaar-de Lauwere et al, 1999), while sward height had no effect on total time spent grazing (Ketelaar-de Lauwere et al, 2000). Furthermore, the availability of a partial mixed ration (PMR) and concentrates, as opposed to only concentrates, for cows in an indoor AMS with access to pasture, resulted in a 50% reduction in the time spent grazing (Salomonsson and Sporndly, 2000).…”

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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Voluntary automatic milking in combination with grazing of dairy cows

Cited by 58 publications

References 14 publications

A note on overdispersion as an index of behavioural synchrony: a pilot study in dairy cows

A note on overdispersion as an index of behavioural synchrony: a pilot study in dairy cows

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

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

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