in pasture-based milk production systems, using available farm resources in order to reduce feeding costs, the composition and functional properties of dairy cows’ milk are of considerable importance to the dairy farmer, manufacturer and consumer. basically, there are three options for altering the composition and/or functional properties of milk: 1) cow nutrition and grazing management, 2) cow...

The objective of this study is to quantify the milk production response per cow and per hectare (ha) for an incremental stocking rate (SR) change, based on a meta-analysis of published research papers. Suitable experiments for inclusion in the database required a comparison of at least two SRs under the same experimental conditions in addition to details on experimental length and milk producti...

More efficient and economical production systems are needed to improve the sustainability of dairy farms. One concept to consider is using perennial cows. Perennial cows are those that maintain a relatively high milk production for >or=2 yr without going through the typical dry period followed by calving. Farm records show that some cows have produced over 20 kg/d after 4 yr of continuous lacta...

Automatic milking systems (AMS) rely upon voluntary cow traffic (the voluntary movement of cattle around a farm) for milk harvesting and feed consumption. Previous research on conventional milking systems has shown differences between dairy cow breeds for intake and milk production, however, the ability to manipulate voluntary cow traffic and milking frequency on AMS farms through breed selecti...

The cost of milk production by farm size was decomposed into frontier and efficiency components with a stochastic cost curve using data on 755 USA dairy farms from the year 2000. The estimated frontier function is much flatter than the composite cost curve, and although the frontier cost of production decreases with farm size, that cost reduction is not as pronounced as a cost curve that includ...

This paper examines the cost efficiency of dairy farms in 2 important regions of commercial milk production in Poland (i.e., Wielkopolskie and Podlaskie). Both regions gained importance following the market-driven resource allocation mechanism adopted after Poland's transition to the market economy in 1989 and accession to the European Union (EU) in 2004. The elimination of the dairy quota syst...

Automatic milking systems (AMS) offer relief from the demanding routine of milking. Although many AMS are in use in Europe and a few are used in the United States, the potential benefit for American farms is uncertain. A farm-simulation model was used to determine the long-term, whole-farm effect of implementing AMS on farm sizes of 30 to 270 cows. Highest farm net return to management and unpa...

description of lactation curve were investigated using sine function, compare it with two functions (dijekstra and wood). the data contained 32233 dairy milk yield records from 93 first parity iranian holstein cows that had calving between aug. 2008 and jul. 2009. actual milk production per day and subsequently the actual production of each animal were available in the first lactation. lactatio...

The objective of this trial was to measure performance of paired pens of lactating Jersey and Jersey-Holstein crossbred (JX) vs. Holstein (H) cows over a year in a Wisconsin confinement dairy herd. Average daily milk yield of JX was 5.5 kg/ cow less than H, whereas average milk fat and true protein percentages were 0.61 (4.26 vs. 3.65%) and 0.19 (3.05 vs. 2.86%) percentage units, respectively, ...

This study covered 75 cooperative member milk producers and 75 non-member milk producers which were poststratified into small, medium and large herd size categories. Per day net maintenance cost was found to be higher for member group than that of non-member group. It was found to be higher in case of buffalo than that of cow and also observed more in the summer season. Per litre cost of buffal...