WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FROM HEIFERS MILKED IN ROBOTS

A few years ago, a farmer told me they liked their robots but they weren’t sure robots were the best way to milk heifers. They were disappointed with the milk yield. Another farmer told me he moved an 80-pound fresh heifer from the parlor to the robots and within 3 weeks that heifer was over 130 pounds. The Dairy Records Management Systems average for first lactation heifers, from 1-40 days in milk (DIM), is 70 pounds per day. 95% of the heifers in that data set averaged between 48 and 92 pounds. That’s quite a range. Where do your heifers fit? Where would you like them to fit? What do you expect from your heifers? What can you do about it?

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