Milk production, cow traffic and milking duration at different milking frequencies in an automated milking system integrated with grazing

The integration of an automated milking system with grazing relies on the voluntary movement of the cow from the field to the milking yard. Although this inherent voluntary presentation at the milking yard is the cow's decision, AMS settings determine if a cow has admittance for milking based on her milk yield and time since last milking. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of reducing milking frequency on milk production, cow traffic and milking duration. Two groups with 31 cows in each were initially balanced for breed, parity, days in milk, previous 25 day milk yield and milking frequency. Milking permission of 2 and 3 times per day were assigned to either group, cows adjusted to this treatment over a 10 day period and the experimental trial was 12 weeks between 12/05/2014 and 03/08/2014. Due to the voluntary nature of the system cows permitted to milk 3 (MP3) and 2 (MP2) times per day had milking frequency averages of 1.8 and 1.5 times per day which were significantly different between the groups (p=<0.0001). The cows milking 1.8 and 1.5 times per day produced 19 and 18.4 kg of milk per cow per day, respectively, however this was not different between groups indicating the potential to reduce milking frequency without adverse production effects. In an AMS reducing milking frequency would reduce the time cows are waiting to be milked, increase AMS free time and therefore permit more cows to milk throughout the day.