Recently, customers have been asking about day-to-day and seasonal variation in their robot barns. They want to know why production, visits, and cow flow can’t be more consistent. In normal day-to-day operation, the five things most likely to change are environment, cows, feed, machines, and people. Each of those can affect how much cows eat, how much they rest, and in a robot barn, how often they are milked. The more consistent we can keep these five, the more bored our cows will be – and cows love to be bored.
Environment
It was below freezing in Wisconsin this morning, but we don’t have to think too hard to remember temperatures over 90 degrees and heat stress that shut down production, dry matter intake, and visits. Extreme cold can slow a barn down just as much as extreme heat. But there are other more subtle environmental factors. Do cows spend more time lying in their stalls on the day you add bedding compared to the day before you add bedding? Would grooming or adding bedding more frequently provide a more consistent stall surface?
Cows
Most of the population in a given pen does not change from day to day, but small groups of cows move in and out regularly. All of the animals in the pen need to adapt to the new social structure. Are cows moved into robot pens in large groups or on specific days? Is it possible to be more strategic about pen moves? How frequently are new cows introduced? How many are introduced at once? Can cows be better prepared for pen moves?
Feed
Rain and snow events change forage dry matter and make it difficult to weigh feed accurately. That is a problem whether cows are milked in robots or parlors. The variation may affect robot cows more than it affects parlor cows. If cows run out of feed, they may compensate with larger meals when feed is delivered. Larger meals mean it will take longer for cows to become hungry again, and they will be slower to return to the bunk and to the robot. Is feed delivered at the same time every day? Can cows reach feed for 22 hours each day?
Machines
Robots will have down time, and it will affect production. If a technical failure shuts the system down for 2 hours, then 2 hours’ worth of production is lost and it will not be recovered. Downtime for maintenance is unavoidable, but it can be scheduled for times when it will have the least impact. Some downtime for repairs is inevitable, but careful monitoring of equipment can minimize it. Do you have a routine to catch small problems before they become big problems?
People
Gordie Jones has said, “My cows don’t get a problem unless somebody fails them.” Cows love consistency and it is our job to provide it. Efficient and consistent routines for bedding, scraping, and managing cows will keep the barn flowing consistently. Robot downtime caused by management interruptions has the same impact as downtime caused by technical failures. Stopping cow flow for 20 minutes to bed, 40 minutes because of a feeding delay, 15 minutes to lock cows for shots, and 15 minutes to sort cows for foot trimming, has the same impact as stopping cow flow for an hour and a half because of a technical failure. People are more likely to notice a technical failure than a management interruption – especially if the technical failure is all at once and the management interruptions are spread over a few days. Both can have the same cumulative impact on the cow.
Environment, cows, feed, machines, and people can cause day-to-day variation in automatic milking production and visits. How can you control them and make your barn more boring?
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