In tropical countries it is common practice to milk cows once daily and additionally maintain a suckled calf. Such a system in Europe could have relevance on small farms where part-time work was necessary to maintain the farm business.

The objective of this study was to examine the cow and calf performance on such a system in comparison to a conventional twice daily milking system.

Sixteen Holstein Friesian cows (12) and Brown Swiss x Holstein Friesian cows (4) were allocated at random to control or suckled groups. They calved in June/July 1992 with beef bred calves (Simmental and Limousin sires). Calves were removed from the control cows at 24 h after birth.

They were grazed until October as two separate groups and buffer fed with maize silage. The control group were milked twice daily and the suckled group were milked in the morning only. The calves were put with the suckled group after morning milking and were removed from their dams 7-8 h later and housed overnight. After full housing in October, the calves were allowed to suckle for up to 30 minutes after morning milking and for a further 30 minutes in late afternoon.