Almost everyone involved with robotic milking agrees that training new animals is a key to making the barn flow, and achieving the desired milking frequency. Almost everyone involved with robotic milking has a different way to do that training. Without a doubt, there is no one-size-fits-all approach.
TRAINING CONSISTENTLY
My brother has 8 kids. Growing up, those kids had an after-school routine which included putting coats, hats, mittens, and backpacks away as soon as they walked in the door. Now and then, one of them would leave something undone – in my brother’s words, they thought, “Maybe today is the day Mom and Dad will let us get away with that.” They never got away with it, and the kids were trained to put their stuff away. Training new cows is just like training your kids. Consistency counts.
FREQUENT FETCHING
I like to have new cows milked 3 to 4 times a day, every day. It doesn’t have to be every 6 to 8 hours and it doesn’t have to be at the same time every day. 4 to 5 hours between milkings is enough, and allows 3 to 4 milkings even if there is nobody in the barn overnight. Some will worry that too much fetching will teach cows to be fetched. That can be a problem if training is not consistent, and therefore lasts more than a week. Consistent training will have most cows visiting on their own in less than a week. A week of consistent training will not make cows expect to be fetched.
TRAINING TO THE BARN
Training is important for more than milking frequency – it affects how much cows eat in the robot and at the bunk. In guided flow barns, if cows are trained to get to the feed bunk, visits to the milking robot will follow. Some people train cows to get to the bunk by running them through the gates 3 or 4 times without milking permission. Others mark the cows that are being trained and send them through the sort gate every time someone goes through the pen. This doesn’t require a fetch list, and anyone can do it. Getting new cows out of their stalls also works in free flow barns too – even though it may result in refusals, it still helps cows learn to go to the robot.
Cow Corner can help customize a training program for your cows, your labor, and your barn. Contact me for help.