The influence of the accessibility of concentrate on the behaviour of cows milked in an automatic milking system

Abstract

Forcing cows to visit the automatic milking system (AMS) regularly because it is their only way to roughage, might be questionable with regard to the cows' welfare, but leaving them free to choose whether to visit the AMS also seems to be questionable because some will pay insufficient visits to the AMS. Therefore, an alternative routing method was studied, in which the cows could move freely between the feeding and lying areas, but were stimulated to visit the AMS as only way of accessing the concentrate feeder. Two experiments were conducted, each with two treatments and 20 Holstein Friesian dairy cows. In the first treatment of experiment I, the concentrate feeder was accessible only via the AMS, and in the second treatment, it was freely accessible. In both cases a new portion of concentrate became available once every two hours. In experiment II, the concentrate feeder was available only via the AMS. A new portion of concentrate became available every two hours during the first treatment of this experiment and every four hours during the second treatment. The results showed that allocation of concentrate in a feeder which can only be reached via the AMS is a good stimulus to attract cows to the AMS regularly, because the milking frequency increased in this situation, and the waiting time in front of the concentrate feeder and the number of aggressive interactions in this area decreased. It is better to make concentrate available once every four hours than once every two hours, because this increases concentrate intake and rest in the barn.