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The influence of feeding strategies on the attendance of cows to an automatic milking system, and their effects on lying and feeding behaviour

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2021

N.B. Prescott ,
T.T.F. Mottram  and
A.J.F. Webster
N.B. Prescott
Affiliation:
Silsoe Research Institute, Silsoe, Bedfordshire MK45 4HS, United Kingdom
T.T.F. Mottram
Affiliation:
Silsoe Research Institute, Silsoe, Bedfordshire MK45 4HS, United Kingdom
A.J.F. Webster
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Veterinary Science, University of Bristol, Langford House, Langford BSI8 7DU, United Kingdom
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Extract

An automatic milking system (AMS) has the potential to milk cows when the cow chooses. However cows must attend the system at an appropriate frequency. The provision of food in the AMS is a robust, way of luring cows into the system. The system can be arranged such that the cows have to visit the AMS to access food in the exit area the other side. Here they can be fed forage or concentrate. It has been shown that feeding cows forage as a lure can result in modified forage feeding behaviour, and this may be to the detriment of the cows (Winter, 1993, Ketelaar-de-Lauwere, 1992). Feeding concentrate in the exit area may be an alternative design if the level of attendance generated is high enough. Cows can also be fed concentrate in the milking stall of the AMS. The aim of this experiment was to compare die effects of feeding forage or concentrate in the exit area and the effect of feeding or not feeding concentrate in the milking stall on attendances, and lying and feeding behaviour.

Type
Dairy
Information
Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Science , Volume 1996 , March 1996 , pp. 78
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Science 1996

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References

Ketelaar-de-Lauwere, C.C. 1992. The use of a selection unit for automatic milking. In: Prospects for automatic milking: Proceedings of the international symposium on prospects for automatic milking (Ed. Ipema, A.H., Lippus, A.C., Metz, J.H.M., Rossing, W.), pp. 270–279. Pudoc Scientific Publishers, Holland.Google Scholar
Winter, A. 1993. The behavioural modification of inherent behaviour patterns of dairy cows under frequent and automatic milking management. Ph.D. dissertation, Reading University.Google Scholar