CURING ALLELOMIMETIC COWS

Many dairy publications will have features in the coming weeks about the new products they saw and the new things they learned at World Dairy Expo.  Since Cow Corner, and the Cow Corner concept are relatively new, many of the people who stopped by my booth began by asking, “So what does Cow Corner do?”  I never actually explained it this way, but Cow Corner spends a lot of time curing allelomimetic cows. I think that cure is new to Expo.

According to Wikipedia, allelomimetic behavior is, “A range of activities in which the performance of a behavior increases the probability of that behavior being performed by other nearby animals.” That’s still a lot of big words. Allelomimetic cows are cows that do the same thing that all the other cows do.

Anyone who has pushed cows into a parlor holding area, or brought them out of a pasture, appreciates alleleomimetic cows. It’s better when they all do the same thing. The one that bolts as the rest of them go through the gate is the one that needs a cure. I fact, handling cows for parlor milking reinforces allelomimetic behavior, and it’s a good thing when parlor cows do the same thing at the same time. On the other hand, milking robots do not have the capacity to milk all of the cows at once, so cows need to be influenced do things independently. Feed bunk management, and milking permission, are 2 tools that can be used to encourage cows to cure allelomimetic cows.

Feed Bunk Management

In order for cows to come to the feed bunk independently, they must be confident they will be able to get a full meal every time they come to the bunk. If the bunk is empty, or feed delivery times are inconsistent, cows will learn to come to the bunk together when new feed is available. That’s a good thing if you want to lock them all in headlocks for treatment, but it’s a bad thing if you want then to use the milking robot at all hours of the day. If all the cows come to the bunk together when feed is delivered, they will all want to milk at the same time and they will all want to rest at the same time, and the cycle will repeat itself later in the day. Keep fresh feed in front of cows at least 22 hours a day, and feed at the same time every day to cure feed bunk induced alellomimetosis.

Milking Permission

One of the reasons to limit milking permission is to keep the line short at the robot. Try to have 1/3 of the cows eligible for milking at any given time. It’s a little like serving a buffet. If all of the guests come to the buffet at once, the line is long and the guests at the end of the line become frustrated. If the hostess sends the guests to the buffet one table at a time, the guests are less likely to become impatient. The first step is to look for cows that yield less than 20-25 lbs per milking and adjust permission to milk them less frequently, if possible. Review milking permission to cure milking robot induced allelomimetosis.

Allelomimetic cows can be cured. Bunk management and milking permission are good places to start. Cow Corner can help.