Once A Day Milking - The Future Of Grass Based Dairies

Introduction

I farm in west Cornwall in partnership with my family. The milking platform is 104 ha and we have 100 ha available as support land for heifers and winter feed. We have been milking once a day milking (OAD) for the last three years. The change to OAD has brought many benefits to the farm business, the cows and to those who work on the farm. I will outline the reasons behind our change to OAD, the impact that OAD has had on the farm and also some factors to consider if you are planning to change to OAD.

Why the change to OAD milking?

Reasons for change

We were in our 7th year of twice a day block spring calving in 2008 and I was finding the system was more complicated and harder to operate than I desired. Some of the issues that I was unhappy with are outlined below:

• Lifestyle – This was my main reason for changing to OAD. I have a young family and wanted to be able to spend more time with them and enjoy them growing up. The decision to go OAD was made in August 2008. The decision was triggered by a very wet summer which had put pressure on cows and people alike at a time of the year when the farm should be very simple to operate. There had to be a more simple and enjoyable way to run a dairy farm. I was very fortunate that there had already been a couple of early pioneers of OAD which allowed me to make the change with confidence.
• Cow condition – We wish to operate an all grass system and for cows to be fed only grazed pasture during the whole lactation. At certain times of the year cow condition would be lower than desired especially if the weather was unfavourable. We were ending up with too many light cows at drying off that required large amounts of high quality feed during the winter to ensure adequate condition score at calving.
• Lameness – The amount of lameness suffered by the cows was another reason for the change. In previous seasons when we switched to OAD in the autumn we saw a lower prevalence of lameness. The treatment of lame cows is both time consuming and expensive. The change to OAD milking offered the opportunity to reduce lameness and allow improved welfare for the cow and the operator.
• Empty Rates – After a number of years of selecting bulls for fertility and using best practice for breeding I was unhappy with empty rates in the herd. Empty rates were running at 12% after 12 weeks of breeding. Other farmer experience of OAD indicated that we could improve on this.
• Hard on people – I felt that twice a day milking at times of the year was hard on people who work on the farm. It often means people have to come back from family activities to milk cows or they are unable to commit to playing sport as it clashes with afternoon milking. I believe that you should not ask people to do a job that you are not prepared to do yourself. OAD milking is far more compatible with life outside of farming and allows people to have a more sociable working week.

Impact of OAD on the farm business.

The widely held perception of OAD milking is that is suitable for those who seek a better lifestyle and are prepared to lose out financially. Our dairy farm business was performing very well before we made the switch and is performing even better financially now than before. We did a detailed budget and forecast a reduction in operating profit of £100 a hectare in our first year of OAD milking. Three years down the line we are in a better position than we would have been on TAD. The reasons for this are numerous and some of the most important ones are listed below:

• Lifestyle/People Welfare. – The concept of working less to earn more may come as a surprise to some people. However, I strongly believe that OAD milking allows people to become more productive and efficient. The principles of profitable grass based dairying are well understood and relatively simple. The key to deploying them profitably in your business is the consistent application of them. By removing a milking and its associated activity it allows people to apply these principles relentlessly as they have more time to think, plan and manage the farm. With more sociable working practices peoples job satisfaction improves and they take more pride in their work. There is now more time to hear the birds sing and watch the sun rise. Staff retention is greatly improved which means the key decision makers are not continually changing which allows the farm to run more efficiently.
• Production – The change to OAD milking did lead to a reduction in milk solids of around 30% per cow for us, the herd is mainly Friesian. Table 1 outlines the changes in production.

Table 1 Milk production