TROUBLESHOOTING LOW MILKINGS IN ROBOTS - PART 3

This is the final installment of a 3-part series on trouble shooting low milkings in robots. Part 1 covered herd management factors that apply in all barns. Part 2 addressed feed factors that are specific to free flow barns. Part 3 is about managing the commitment pen in guided flow farms. Recently, I have visited a few farms that switched, or considered switching, from guided flow to free flow, or free flow to guided flow. I wrote this series to offer some food for thought, before remodeling the barn. I encourage exploring options to determine the best fit for the farm. I have reservations about remodeling a barn to solve a management problem. If someone switches from green tractors to red tractors because red tractors have features that they like, they may be very happy with the change. If someone switches from red tractors to green tractors because red tractors don’t last if you don’t change the oil, there is a good chance that green tractors will have the same problem. Moving cows through the guided-flow commitment pen efficiently depends on cow training, gate decisions, and milking permission.

Cow training in guided flow barns involves teaching cows how to get to the feed bunk, and

how to get out of the commitment pen. Bring cows to the selection gate when they do not have milking permission to teach them that the gate leads to the feed bunk. Bringing them a few times in a row will teach them more quickly. Once they recognize the gate gets them to the bunk, some of the trips to the bunk will be diverted to the commitment pen for milking. Cows also need to be taught that a trip through the robot will allow them to get out of the commitment pen. Consider clearing the commitment pen before fetching to keep cows from hanging out too long.

Gate decisions determine how many cows will be allowed in the commitment pen at any given time. The number of cows allowed in the commitment pen depends on the physical size of the pen and the milking capacity of the robots. Avoid allowing more cows into the commitment pen than can be milked in an hour. Start with no more than 9 cows per robot if your milking duration is six and a half minutes. Limit it to fewer cows if the pen is small. Gate decisions can give preference to early lactation cows, overdue cows, incomplete cows, and more. Make sure the commitment pen is not overloaded by those preference decisions. They should allow access for preference groups, without limiting access for the rest of the cows. If more than 20% of the cows are let in by preference decisions, they are probably limiting access to milking for the rest of the cows.

Ultimately, milking permission determines how cows move through the commitment pen, because most of the selection gate decisions are based on whether or not a cow is eligible to be milked. Think about which cows need to be milked during the busiest time of day. A lot of cows usually go through the selection gate when feed is delivered. Milking permission determines which of those cows have access to the robots and which cows are sent to feed. Theoretically, if milking permission is set to allow the right cows into the commitment pen, the pen counts in the gate decisions would not be needed. This is almost impossible to achieve in practice, so we still use pen counts.

Managing the commitment pen involves a balance between gate decisions and milking permission. Cow Corner can help find that balance on your farm.