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Do you want to do 140 milkings less per year or just reduce the number of milkings over the latter part of the season?
By milking three times in 2 days; i.e. twice on one day and once the following day, you are able to save approximately 140 milkings from the normal 420.
It is important to realise that you need to take a relatively relaxed approach to this. Some farmers have attempted to milk at exactly 18 hour intervals resulting in milking in the middle of the night. This is unnecessary and actually quite ridiculous.
How did we do it?
Milk at the normal time of the morning, eg 5am and then do normal daily work. Then after the evening meal, at around 8pm, milk again. It was important that everything was set up; have the cowshed, all the gates etc ready so the cows would automatically go into the paddock.
The following day we got up at a more leisurely time and milked the cows at lunchtime.
What are the benefits?
- The condition of the cows seems to improve. Continual walking to the cow shed and standing around on concrete appears to take condition off. Milking three times in 2 days the cows are in better order, resulting in weathering the winter and going into calving in an improved condition.
- It’s an opportunity to lengthen your paddock rotation. If you start milking three times in 2 days in January or February you actually extend your rotation by 25% which is always a good thing over the summer season.
- You lessen foot wear and foot problems by reducing the amount of time the cows spend walking the races and standing on concrete. One farmer calculated his cow, with a life of nine years, walked 12,000 kilometres. This certainly helps you understand why cows suffer from feet problems.
- The huge saving of not less than 25% can be expected from power, detergent, dogs, motorbikes, farm plant and races.
Staff are not tied to a rigid twice a day milking and it gives them a much more flexible approach and enables them to have afternoon and evenings off. Imagine being able to milk on lunchtime on a Saturday, take your family out water skiing on the lake, have a picnic tea and wander home when it suited rather than rushing home to milk at 3pm.
I employed a contract milker for 10 years on my own farm and used this system. He subsequently went to Tasmania and had a large number of Tasmanian farmers successfully change to milking three times in 2 days.
And what did he think?
He thought it was great because every second day he didn’t have to do the night milking.
It allowed him quality time with his family, particularly after lunchtime milkings and in the weekends.
He was able to shift his milkings around, milking twice daily on two consecutive days so that on a Saturday he milked at 11am then had the afternoon for rugby and the rest of the day off.
He really loved the system and it improved the working relationship between him and I as he had a more relaxed lifestyle. From my point of view I was happy to introduce it as it avoided having to do the weekend milkings myself and gave him more time off as he was doing a lot less milkings himself.
What is the downside?
There have been some queries as to somatic cell counts. We found that these counts didn’t increase that much so that did not appear to be an issue.
Clearly high producing cows in the 330+ kg/ms range may show a drop in production if this system was adopted for the whole season. But certainly if it was done over the autumn I would consider it to be a minimal loss. There are a large number of farmers milking and producing well less than 300kg/ms and they show minimal loss under this system.
I have recently received calls from two different Northland farmers who have gone onto milking three times in 2 days, they have lengthened out their rotation and their production has actually increased so they are more than happy with this system.
The neighbours may think you are going nuts because you are suddenly milking your cows after tea and in the middle of the day. Regardless of what the neighbours think, you will find it is an excellent system.
SUMMARY
Milking three times in 2 days is less drastic than going from twice daily milking to once a day. The production loss is minimal and it seems to suit the cows, the milkers and the dogs better. Cows put on condition and it helps you lengthen your rotation and the pressure on the farm all just seems to drop.
It comes highly recommended and particularly under the dry autumn conditions that seem to be prevailing, it is a very easy way to take the pressure off yourself and your farm.
More than that, it gives an afternoon off where you can go fishing, go to the lake with the family or just settle down and spend time with your family instead of doing that milking every evening.
These are the opinions of Don Fraser of Fraser Farm Finance. Any decisions made should not be based on this article alone and appropriate professional assistance should be sought.
Don Fraser is the Principal of Fraser Farm Finance and a consultant to the Farming Industry. Contact him on 0800 777 675 or 021 777 675.
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