COW-SPECIFIC SETTINGS IN ROBOTIC MILKING
The Cambridge dictionary defines micromanagement as, “to control every part of a situation, even small details.” Some other definitions are more judgmental, including words like “excessive.” In business, micromanagement almost always has a negative connotation. At the same time, attention to detail is a good thing. Your robotic milking system can be micromanaged by assigning special milk access, feed, and milking settings to individual cows or small groups of cows. It’s not always a bad thing, but it should not be overused. What are cow-specific settings, how should they be used, and what are the risks?
Management groups allow cow-specific settings in the Lely Horizon program. Management groups have nothing to do with a cow’s physical location, and everything to do with how the system handles the cow. Each group can have its own feed settings and milk access. Pulsation and take-off settings can also be customized for each group.
DelPro allows the user to override herd settings for individual cows in the cow card. Milking settings are customized in the AMS settings section of the cow card. Feed settings are also in the cow card, under the feed tab.
Cow-specific settings can improve milking performance. One of the most common examples is restricting milking permission for late lactation cows with close rear teats. More milk in the udder can spread the rear teats for better attachment and fewer incompletes.
Cow-specific feed settings can control how quickly new cows receive pellets in the robots. Feed tables work well for cows that are in the robot barn at calving. If cows come from the parlor a week or two after calving, the feed table might introduce pellets too quickly. Individual feed settings can provide the right beginning feed allotment whether the cow comes to the barn at 5 days or 15 days, and then increase to full feed at a controlled rate.
Avoid using any cow-specific settings in the first 6 months after startup. Give the cows a chance to learn the system, and the system a chance to learn the cows. Cow specific settings can limit a cow’s performance just as easily as they can enhance it. Excluding a cow from automatic ration calculation can ensure that she has adequate feed available. It can also prevent her from getting more feed as her production increases.
As a general rule of thumb, if you have to use micromanagement settings for more than 10% of the cows, it might be a good idea to review the herd settings. Herd settings have tremendous flexibility to work with different levels of production and different stages of lactation. Milk access is an example. Cows can receive milk access based on either expected yield or time since last milking. The expected yield component ensures that high producing cows have enough opportunities to be milked, while the time component limits milking frequency for lower producing cows. The herd milking permission will provide the right milking frequency for most cows.
Cow-specific settings need to be reviewed on a regular basis. I have visited farms where more than half of the cows were excluded from herd milk access because nobody looked for excluded cows. Many of these settings should be set back to the default at the beginning of a new lactation. Most of them don't return to default automatically. Don't change a setting if you don't have a plan for changing it back.
At Cow Corner, I routinely monitor settings that might limit performance, and I review critical individual-cow settings. We can create a plan that works for your farm, whether that is ongoing monitoring or a one-time checkup. Click the "Contact" link to get started.
