Nutritional Strategies for Automatic Milking Systems

Feeding cows in robotic or automatic milking systems (AMS) is challenging because balancing the partial ration that is offered in the feed bunk (PMR) with the concentrate feed provided in the AMS milking station can be a difficult task. Feeding management is suggested to be one of the major factors for success in AMS. Our survey of AMS dairy farms in Minnesota and Wisconsin indicated that nutritionists ranked palatability of the AMS concentrate pellet and consistency of the PMR as 2 keys for feeding success. Free flow AMS farms fed 6.6 ± 2.5 and guided flow AMS farms fed 1.9 ± 1.1 kg per cow/day of concentrate in the AMS station. Nutritionists working with these farms indicated that in free flow herds the PMR was balanced for milk production levels of 4.5 to 13.6 kg less than the herd’s average production. For guided flow herds the PMR was balanced for 4.1 to 9.1 kg less than the average of the herd. In one of our studies, we investigated management and housing factors associated with milk per cow and per AMS in free flow AMS farms. Total daily milk yield per AMS and daily milk yield per cow are suggested as important characteristics used to assess the efficiency of AMS. Farms with automatic feed push up robots produced more (P < 0.05) daily milk per AMS (2078 kg) and per cow (36.4 kg) than farms with manual feed push up (1724 kg/AMS and 31.5 kg per cow/day). Multivariate analysis of free flow AMS farms showed that number of milking visits to the AMS/cow per day, amount of concentrate fed/cow per day and cow milking speed were all positively associated with daily milk production/cow (P < 0.0001). Conversely, factors negatively associated with daily milk yield/cow were number of refused and failed visits to the AMS and amount of residual concentrate in the AMS station. Daily milk yield per cow was highly correlated with milk per AMS (r = 0.83). Other keys to success with AMS include a high number of AMS visits/cow in early lactation and implementing an excellent transition cow program.