If you multiplied the number of robot manufacturers by the number of robot farms and the number of nutritionists, you might have an approximation of the number of ways to control pellet feeding in a robot barn. There are a lot of ways, and they don’t all involve feed tables. If feed tables are used, the most basic variable is whether the table is controlled by days-in-milk or milk-yield. A days-in-milk feed table adjusts robot feed according to how long a cow has been milking. A milk-yield feed table adjusts robot feed according to how much milk she is making. Each has a time and a place. Here is an overview of how to use days-in-milk, and milk-yield feed tables at different stages of lactation.
FRESH COWS
Use a days-in-milk feed table to acclimate fresh cows and heifers to the barn, and move them from a post fresh level of pellet feeding, to a full feed of pellets, at a controlled rate. If cows come to the robot barn at freshening, they should stay on the days-in-milk feed table for at least 20 days. Pellets should increase quickly, to encourage frequent milkings, and meet nutrient requirements as quickly as possible. If the switch from days-in-milk to milk-yield is before 20 days, cows that started slowly may have pellets taken away when they switch to the milk-yield feed table. Few things choke peak production more effectively than taking pellets away at 10 days in milk. It gets a little more complicated if fresh cows are milked in a parlor and transition to the robot barn later. The goal is the same, but the starting point is a moving target depending on when fresh cows are moved from the parlor to the robot barn.
EARLY LACTATION
For feed tables, early lactation starts when cows move from the days-in-milk feed table to the milk-yield feed table. Early lactation ends at peak production. We can use a milk-yield feed table for this group, but it needs to include challenge feeding for lower levels of production. If a cow starts slowly, or stalls because of health problems, she needs to have pellets available to get her back to her potential. For example, suppose a cow has the potential to produce 110 lbs per day and she needs 11 lbs of pellets to do it. Without a challenge, she might go off feed, and drop to 70 lbs of milk and 7 lbs of pellets. She won’t get back to 11 lbs of pellets until she gets back to 110 lbs of milk, and she might not get back to 110 lbs of milk without 11 lbs of pellets. If we challenge the 70 lb cow with 10 lbs of pellets, she has the groceries she needs to get to her potential level of production. Of course, this a just an example and not a recommendation for a specific level of pellet feeding.
LATE LACTATION
In late lactation, after peak production, cows can be fed strictly according to production, on a milk-yield feed table. If a late lactation cow loses production because of a health event, she is not likely to come back to her previous level of production and there is no need to challenge her. There are various tools in the system to try to reduce pellet feeding before dry-off, in an attempt to reduce milk production.
Your nutritionist is the best person to determine the nutritional requirement for pellets at different stages of lactation. Cow Corner can help you set the system so that cows can get the robot feed the nutritionist intended. I can also help you identify and troubleshoot individual cows that are not eating the robot feed they should.
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