Report 41 provides an insight into the efficiency of individual cows. It therefore also provides an ideal way to identify inefficient cows to increase robot capacity. An important parameter in the report is the milk yield per box time per week. This parameter shows how much milk per minute the robot can extract from the cow for every minute she utilizes the robot from stepping in to stepping out.
Where can you find the report?
Go to Reports > Milking > Report 41 – Milking – Cow Robot Efficiency
How do you apply the report?
The aim of this report is to gain an insight in your least (and most) efficient cows. The efficiency in this report is shown as “Average Milk Yield/Box Time/Week”. Cows with a low milk output per minute spent in the robot can be found by sorting the list according to the column. The complete box time includes two main actions: milking and treatment. The treatment time is the time spent walking into the robot, swinging in the arm, pre-treatment, finding the teats, attachment, spraying and walking out of the robot. It is possible to improve the time spent on each of these two actions.
To optimize milking time (milk speed)
Milk when udders contain more milk. The optimum volume of milk per milking is 10 kg or 22 lb. This can be influenced by adapting the milk access. Our advice is to work together with your Farm Management Advisor if you wish to adjust the milk access table. With the udders containing more milk per milking, time savings can be made in the treatment time. For example, a cow producing 30 kg per day and an average yield of 8 kg will be milked 4 times a day. With an optimum yield of 10 kg, she would be milked 3 times per day. The milk speed itself will not change a lot, but reducing the milking times by 1 will save 1 pre- and post-treatment time.
A second way to improve the milking time is to selectively breed cows with a higher milk speed.
To optimize treatment time
In order to best optimize the treatment time, consider each treatment step separately. There are several ways to optimize the treatment time:
- Shave the udder and tail on a regular basis to improve connection performance.
- Disable milking for a specific quarter when that quarter is empty. This might be the case for cows at the end of lactation/shortly before dry-off.
- Put cows in a group for twice a day milking only. This is an option for cows at the end of their lactation when there is less pressure in the udder. Since their udders are not full enough, the rear teats can be too close together, which will impact the connection performance.
- Put cows in a group for milking only under supervision. This is an option for cows with an abnormal udder shape. The attachment time takes longer for these cows and a quicker connection time can only be achieved when someone is able to support this process.
- Recalibrate the robot arm. Calibrating the robot arm will improve the accuracy of the arm and therefore improve the connection performance.
- Clean the laser more frequently. We advise cleaning the TDS laser screen at least once a day. If the laser is not cleaned daily, dirt can build up and start to cover the screen. This will have negative impact on the connection performance.