Implementing flexible milking

As the popularity of 3-in-2 milking increases, it is clear there is no one-size fits all approach, hence the term 'flexible milking'.

This allows you flexibility in choosing when you want to milk, based on your values and situation.

The following table outlines several examples that we have seen on farms throughout New Zealand and is by no means an exhaustive list. Note some of these intervals may affect milk production.

Under flexible milking systems, milking times on the day with one milking are generally timed to be halfway between the previous milking and the next milking. E.g. for 13-in-7, Sunday 10am is 19 hours after Saturday 3pm and 19 hours before 5am Monday.

One of the top 3 reasons that farmers make the move to flexible milking is for their people – mainly to help reduce staff hours, increase flexibility and work/life balance for them and their staff, and improve staff retention.

Talk with your team and come up with a plan that is desirable for everyone, whether that be a sleep-in, earlier finishes, or a bit of both. Working with the farm team on the best way to structure the day is important to ensure that they can benefit from the change without affecting other non-milking jobs that are important for the farm. Reducing day length will likely benefit farm efficiency through a more motivated team (work-life balance) and improved rest time, resulting in fewer mistakes. 

Each farm is different in terms of staff numbers, responsibilities, milking times etc. so there is no one-size-fits-all approach for how to best manage your roster. However, we have included some examples of how farms already implementing 3-in-2 around the country have organised their roster and/or day to day management of time to create flexibility or reduce overall hours worked. This may help to spark ideas for how to best implement it on your farm to maximise the benefits of using a flexible milking approach.

With milkings occurring at different times, a further opportunity may be to secure relief milking or part time staff from alternative sources – such as those that can work outside of 9-5, or around school hours etc. In some situations this could result in fewer full-time staff, replaced by more part-time staff.

If you are thinking about changing your roster structure, or want to find out if your current roster is the best fit for your farm, find more about selecting rosters.

1250 Cows, 6 Staff

Angela’s system:

• Running two teams of three people,
• The 3 people within each team rotate around the jobs within milking – e.g., cows in, cups on, cups off, vat wash etc.
• Each team milking once per day
• Working 11 days on and three days off.
• The aim of her 11-3 roster is for staff to have consistent eight hour working days.
• She has extra staff for when the workload is higher (e.g., calf rearers).

“We found that we had to stagger the days off when we moved to 3in2, with one team taking Fri-Sun, and the other team taking Sat-Mon the following weekend, to ensure that it was fair with 2 TAD and 1 OAD on each set of days off (Table 1).”

710 cows, 4 staff

Roster:

Ben runs a 7-2, 7-2, 7-3 roster year-round, which has stayed the same between TAD and 3-in-2 milking. The team uses alternating long and short days when milking 3-in-2. This means they can get more jobs done on the two-milking day, allowing for a shorter day on the one-milking day, where the aim is to do only the basics unless something urgent comes up.

Ben says it’s still important to give the team a long lunch break on the longer days, so they get a rest before returning for afternoon/evening milking.

Flexible Milking approaches allow farmers to think outside the square

There are a vast number of ways to take advantage of the flexibility that 3-in-2 milking offers. Below we share ideas to illustrate how some creative thinking can maximise the benefits for people on-farm.

When considering how to make the most of flexible milking, take the time to think about what hours and days of the week work well for your farm and staff. Here are a few examples:

• 10-in-7 can be great for staff that are involved in sports teams or community groups, as it is on a weekly cycle and can be staggered to allow for trainings and game times.
• For smaller owner-operator herds with no staff, flexible milking allows the owners and their families to maximise time away from the farm at a lower cost to the business by maximising the structure of their milking. For example, they could get away for an overnight trip (~36 hours) while only needing 1 milking to be covered by a relief milker.
  • 3-in-2 example: Milk early Saturday morning, relief milker on Saturday afternoon and be back for Sunday midday milking
  • 10-in-7 example: Milk Saturday mid-late morning, relief milker on Sunday morning and back for Monday morning milking.
• For multi-farm operations, there is the possibility to stagger the milking roster so that the farms are on opposite cycles – this could help with any staff shortages or covering days off.

Several farmers who have been using full-season 3-in-2 for multiple years have given us their mating plans – see below. Depending on the system you choose for your farm, and your previous experience and results, your results may differ.  

Please note that these are working examples from the farmers that we spoke to. When creating your own plans, be sure to consider the following:

• Interval between matings.
• Interval between standing heat and mating:
  • Check out LIC’s 'Best time to Mate' graphic to help with your decision making.
• Technician vs DIY:
  • Work with your technician or provider to come up with a plan that works for everyone, including the cows.

Under all the scenarios below, the farmers found their results to be similar, if not better than when they used a standard milking and mating system. Depending on the system you choose for your farm, and your previous experience and results, your results may differ.  

Figure 2. Mating options.

Table 1: Reproduction results experienced by Taranaki pilot farmers. Karyn and Daryl used the first method - drafted and mated after ever milking.

Research in NZ has shown that non-return rates of animals detected in heat at the previous PM milking or the AM milking directly before AI under OAD mating systems were not significantly different, suggesting that there may be some flexibility in the time of AI in relation to standing heat.

For flexible milking intervals, it is possible that an improvement from energy status and BCS of the cows may offset some timing issues if cows are being mated with long intervals between standing heat and ovulation (e.g. >28 hours), resulting in similar reproductive outcomes. Talk to your technician or herd improvement representative to help select the best plan for your farm situation.

How do I manage the colostrum mob with flexible milking

Many farms milk colostrum cows OAD to help with workload during a busy calving period, the aim is to select times that will make the intervals as close to 24 hours as possible.

Here’s how one of the pilot farmers plans to manage this while milking 3-in-2:

• Day 1 – milk colostrums at ~4pm before the main herd at 5pm.
• Day 2 – milk colostrums after the main herd at 11am milking (~2pm)

The aim is to select times that will make the intervals as close to 24 hours as possible, the above example is 22 and 26 hours.

To ensure that colostrum doesn’t get into the supply milk when milking before the main herd, NZCP1 states that milking equipment must be hot washed after milking to ensure that any remaining residue is effectively removed.

Alternatively, other farmers continue to milk their colostrums at every milking when on 3in2. Typically, TAD farmers use a 4-colour tape system to identify when cows have reached their 8 milkings. Under a 3-in-2 system, this would need to be tweaked. See the below table for an example 5-colour option that will help to meet the 8-milking standard - modify to suit your needs.

This scenario assumes that calved cows are only brought into the colostrum mob once a day.

• Before the PM milking on days with 2 milkings.
• Before milking on days with 1 milking.
• If a cows first milking is a day with 2 milkings, she will be drafted at the OAD milking on day 6.
• If a cows first milking is a day with 1 milking, she will be drafted on a TAD AM milking on day 6.

10-in-7 milking

• 10-in-7 also results in drafting cows on day 6. However, unlike 3-in-2 the 8th milking will sometimes be an afternoon milking.
  • Calved on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday Saturday, they will be drafted on a OAD midday milking.
  • Calved on a Wednesday or a Friday, they will be drafted at a PM milking.
  • Cows calved on Sunday will be drafted at AM milking.

Adapt this to your system to ensure your colostrum’s are milked 8 times before entering the vat.

Top tips:

• Be sure to let you milk supply company know your updated milking times to avoid tanker collections during milking.
• Avoid tanker pick-ups that result in one small milking alone and two large milkings.
  • You risk a high SCC from the one small pickup, and
  • A flooded vat for the two large milkings.

High SCC milking

Many farmers that were interviewed had expected the longest milking interval to result in the highest Somatic Cell Count (SCC), due to pressure in the udder, and the previous knowledge around SCC increasing when going on OAD.

However, it is the shortest milking interval that tends to have the highest SCC.

This is due to there being a lower volume of milk in which to dilute a similar number of somatic cells, generating a higher milk SCC.  A bulk tank containing only milk collected after a short interval will have a higher bulk milk SCC.

If you are on daily tanker pickups, work with your milk supply company to select the most suitable time for your pickups (see Figure 1).

If you are on skip-a-day pickups, then SCC of individual milkings will not come into play, as every pickup will have all three milkings.

Figure 1: Diagram showing tanker scheduling options assuming a daily pickup and the tanker coming in the same window each day for a 10-19-19 system.

Adapting the plant wash programme for 3-in-2

The following are example plant and vat cleaning schedules for 3-in-2 milking. Consult with your dairy detergent supplier to discuss the most suitable programme for your plant.

Plant wash example:

Vat wash example:

It is likely that any mastitis treatments administered under 3-in-2 milking regimes would be considered as going 'off-label' due to treatment intervals. Off-label use of any product has a default milk withholding of 35 days.

Not getting vet approval or following the 35 day withholding would likely breach the conditions of supply with your milk processing company or the overarching regulations in NZCPI (MPI regulations for milk supply for human consumption in NZ). Therefore, it is important to discuss your options and withholding periods with your vet and get the required sign-off to be using the treatments under your new regime.

Things you should discuss with your vet to select the most appropriate treatment and get sign off  include:

• Your planned milking intervals
• Preferred treatment options
• Suitable treatment plan, e.g. treating OAD vs at every milking
• Suitable withholding periods for your chosen plan