Frequent Milking in Early Lactation: Considerations for Implementation

Take Home Messages • Labor availability and parlor capacity are key factors when considering a change in milking frequency. • Increases in early lactation milking frequency may provide a better return when labor supply is limited than 3X milking. • Cow movement and time budgets must be optimized for any increase in milking frequency to succeed. A number of management factors need to be evaluated when a shift in milking frequency is under consideration. Besides the obvious labor supply and schedule questions, these include nutritional factors such as feed availability and time at the bunk, cow movement and distance to the parlor, and throughput of the milking system. In addition, when to implement the higher frequency of milking, throughout lactation or only in the early weeks, is also a factor that must be considered. While not an exhaustive list, the objective of this paper is to highlight major decision points that require investigation before movement from the typical twice daily (2X) schedule is implemented. As with other mammals, when cows are milked more frequently they produce more milk. Because milk yield is ultimately a function of the number of mammary epithelial cells that are active and the relative metabolic activity of those cells, it is reasonable to expect that more frequent milk removal influence both of those endpoints. However, when in the lactation cycle mammary cell number versus metabolic activity is affected may diffe r. More complete knowledge regarding when and how frequency responses change during lactation will allow for more appropriate management decisions to optimize production and profitability. The most common milking frequency of 2X removal likely evolved as the trade-off between labor efficiency and milk output. Twice daily milking provides significant yield advantage over milking once a day, and that advantage is magnified as the absolute level of production increases. For example, the depression of yield that occurs with a decline to once daily milk removal has been estimated to be as little as 20%, yet most of the studies examining that effect were completed in late lactation cows, at relatively low production levels, and under challenging nutritional conditions of late season pasture. Though direct comparison of 1X versus 2X milking under conditions more typical of North American management is not available, it is likely that yield depression on 1X would far exceed the 20% reported.