Better Farming - December 2016

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32 Follow us onTwitter @BetterFarmingON Better Farming December 2016
ONCE ADAYMILKING
workload by changing to once-a-day
milking,” suggested the extension
service. Ireland is a bit further ahead
than the rest of Europe in this respect.
Planeloads of dairy farmers regularly
fly south to inspect OAD milking in
New Zealand, where the strategy is
much more popular. Irish govern-
ment agricultural research has also
dedicated time and money to testing
the system.
The globally respected Moorepark
Animal & Grassland Research
Institute, for instance, recently
finished a two-year trial with Hol-
steins on OAD milking. Results from
this Irish research centre showed milk
solids were down by 17 per cent per
cow. Milk produced was 24 per cent
below the average for conventionally
milked cows. Interestingly, the final
individual lactation yield levelled out
at 4,400 litres, just about the same as
that of Karl Meyer’s Simmental cows
in Bavaria.
But the Moorepark results also
confirmed the many advantages of
the system: greatly reduced labour
input, less concentrate feed and
notable improvements in cow health
and fertility.
All this research work meant
62-year-old Michael Wall had plenty
of scientific advice when he decided
to push the milk pump button just
once-a-day for the rest of his milking
career. After a bad first year when
production per cow plummeted by 30
per cent and 25 per cent of the herd
was sold off because the cows just
didn’t take to the system, the Wall
cows returned to their former average
output in year two of OAD milking.
Wall’s daughter and son-in-law
have now taken over the herd. Both
have jobs outside the farm. Milking
starts at 6 a.m. and is finished for the
day at 8.30 a.m. For this young
professional couple with children, the
OAD strategy has allowed them to
stay in dairy farming while meeting
all their other career and family
commitments and plans.
How well OAD milking works
with confined systems, where cows
are on silage and grains year-round,
has not yet been thoroughly tested. At
least not here in Europe.
But for grass-based systems
involving summer milk production
from grazing cows, the strategy
attracts an increasing band of follow-
ers in Britain and Ireland, and some
producers in continental Europe have
also started to adopt the practice.
Recordings so far indicate that the
best-managed systems return the
same income per grazed acre as the
conventional TAD approach.
Naturally, everyone in the milk
business seeks profitability first. But a
close second goal for all the farmers
mentioned here is more time away
from the daily milking chore. A
bonus of many hours, some for
crucial management input, but most
for all-important free time with
family and friends. BF