IS A FRESH COW PEN RIGHT FOR YOUR ROBOTIC DAIRY?

There is growing interest in using dedicated fresh pens on robotic dairies. For some dairies this is a pen with one robot, constructed specifically for fresh cows or special needs cows. For others it is an existing pen, repurposed as a fresh pen. Fresh pens can allow more robot time for fresh cows. They can also improve labor efficiency by concentrating the training and monitoring of fresh cows in one place. This also means fresh cow training and monitoring will not interfere with cow flow in the other pens. On the other hand, a pen move will be required. Cows will have to adjust to a new pen and a new robot when they leave the fresh pen. A dedicated fresh pen should be sized to hold and milk less than 20% of your herd because that’s the portion of your herd that is likely to be fresh at any given time. The actual size will depend on how long you keep cows in the fresh pen. I have been helping a Cow Corner customer create a fresh pen during the last 6 months.

We began with a plan to add more robots. As we talked through which groups of cows would be in which pens, a fresh pen seemed like a good fit. The extra robots are part of the long-range plan, but the owner decided to create a fresh pen right away. With the current stocking rate and distribution of cows in the other pens, and the total herd size, it worked out that the fresh pen would include all lactation groups until 50 days in milk and be stocked at 80 to 85% of robot capacity. If it becomes advantageous to move cows out more quickly, they could leave some slow cows or chronic fetch cows in the fresh pen. The goal was to concentrate training in one place for more efficient use of labor and less interference in the established pens.

Each pen on the farm has either left-handed or right-handed robots, so some cows were going to have to adjust to a different robot when they moved from the fresh pen to the regular pen. They chose a fresh pen that is configured the same as the heifer pen, anticipating that heifers would not adjust to a different robot as well as mature cows. They moved a group of 10 cows from the fresh group to a regular group with the opposite robot to see how they would adapt. There were some challenges, and challenges continue, but they have built protocols to monitor cows after the switch, and cows have learned to adapt to the new configuration.

Converting the pen from a normal population to a fresh pen was a process. They needed to make room for all of the fresh cows, reduce the stocking density of the pen, and move the late lactation cows out – all without disrupting the whole barn by moving large numbers of cows at once. They are 6 months into the transition. Stocking density is down to the desired level and there is room for all of the cows to go to the fresh pen right after they calve. There are about 30 late lactation cows left to cycle out of the fresh the pen.

Fresh cow training has been more efficient since implementation of the fresh pen. The lower stocking density makes robots more available to fresh heifers. Concentrating all of the fresh cows in one pen has made 3X training of fresh heifers much more practical. They are still learning about transitioning cows from the fresh pen to the regular pen. Mature cows can be transitioned earlier than heifers. Heifers need to be going to the robot aggressively before they are transitioned. Milking permission is being fine-tuned to make sure fresh cows have access to robots when they land in a new pen. Now cows are being marked when they transition from fresh pen to regular pen so they can be monitored easily.

Is a fresh pen right for your dairy? Like so many questions in robotic milking – it depends. First, you have to have enough pens. Recognize that it will be a process. Understand that one of the advantages of the fresh pen is lower stocking density for the fresh cows. Some capacity will be lost due to lower stocking density in that pen. Some of that capacity may be regained with higher stocking density and less interference in the other pens. Cow Corner can help you work through the options for your dairy.