In my daily work I focus a lot on milking efficiency. As an industry, we are continually asking our cows, equipment and employees to perform at higher and higher levels. I’m often asked to help dairymen and women turn their parallel parlors more times per hour or to turn their rotary wheels faster.
Usually, these dairies are doing a lot of things right. For example, many dairy producers know their vacuum and pulsation settings. Usually these are set optimally for fast, yet comfortable milking. Some dairy producers are intentionally training and encouraging their employees. It’s not uncommon for me to meet well-trained and focused employees. Most dairy producers know how many cows per hour their facilities can handle and have maximized their cow numbers to match. So why do I get called to help?
More often than I would like, I see cows being negatively affected by the drive for speed and efficiency. In these cases, producers have left the “cowness of the cow” out of their efficiency equation.
Although there are several factors involved in maximizing the efficiency of your milking facilities, allowing the cow to be a cow may be the most critical. When cows feel comfortable in the milking facility, they give their milk faster and more completely. When they are calm and comfortable, they defecate less and are generally easier to work with. When cows are not calm or comfortable, the opposite is true on all fronts. Stress on the cow is one of the biggest threats to efficiency.
How do we work quickly and efficiently without putting the cows in a state of stress? How do you balance the need for a complete prep routine and still achieve maximum turns per hour? Let's look at a couple scenarios to answer these questions.
Dairy A: 4,200-plus cows, double-50 parallel
On this dairy, there is always an employee in the holding area putting pressure on the cows to enter. To save time in the pit, the cows walk over an automatic sprayer that applies the pre-dip. The cows are generally stressed when they enter the parlor and defecate a lot on the deck and machines.
Once the cows are in their stalls, the employees quickly wipe off the pre-dip and attach the milking machines. They do not strip or touch the cow in any other way to save time. The cows are visibly agitated when the units are attached. There is zero milk flow in the claws for the first 60 seconds after unit attachment and even longer in some cases. Milk flow begins after an entire minute of full vacuum. The dairy is using a high vacuum setting in an effort to harvest the milk faster.
Within another two to three minutes, the employees finish the other side and are anxiously waiting to manually pull the machines from the cows that have just started milking. Although they don’t immediately pull the machines, they do pull them before the cows are milked out. They quickly and incompletely post-dip these cows and let them go.
Because the cows defecate so much in the parlor, the deck and machines continually need to have the manure sprayed off. The need for water results in the cows that are exiting being sprayed on the udders and legs. Some of the post-dip is inadvertently washed off by employees spraying the deck.
This dairy is harvesting an average of 85 pounds per cow and running a somatic cell count (SCC) of over 300,000. Milking durations are three-and-a-half minutes. The detach settings are half a pound per minute. They are turning the parlor over five times an hour, yet they often have to skip washes because they frequently have problems with cows loading incorrectly, and this causes them to get behind.
They have four employees working in the pit and another person pushing cows, getting towels and occasionally post-dipping. The environment is dirty, and there is a continual sense of controlled chaos. The dairy suffers from high employee turnover, and there is no emphasis on employee training or continuing education.
Dairy B: 3,200 cows, double-50 parallel, 3X-milking
This dairy has trained the entire herd of cows to enter the parlor without human pressure. Employees are prohibited from going into the holding area unless they are milking the heifer pen. The cows enter the parlor simply with pressure from the crowd gate. The cows are calm when they enter and do not defecate much in the parlor.
The pit always has six employees in it. They do a full prep routine including stripping. Milk flow is immediate when machines are attached, and the detach setting is at two pounds per minute. The pulsation, vacuum and detach settings are so comfortable, the cows have learned it is safe to let their milk down immediately and completely.
The sixth person makes sure the cows are post-dipped very well before they exit and that the equipment is always clean. There is no need to spray water because the equipment and deck generally stay clean.
They turn the parlor five times an hour and have plenty of time to wash. The cows enter the parlor in a calm state, they milk in a calm state and they exit in a calm state.
This dairy is harvesting roughly 105 pounds and they generally run a 90,000 SCC. Durations are four minutes. They have regular training meetings and also do extra training with the leaders. The dairy has a low employee turnover rate.
An economic perspective
105 pounds on 3,200 cows = 336,000 pounds a day. 85 pounds on 4,200 cows = 357,000 pounds a day. There is a 1,000-cow difference between the two dairies, yet only 21,000 pounds of milk per day difference. How much does it cost to feed an extra 1,000 cows per day? How much more labor and facilities do you need to feed, breed, milk and manage 1,000 cows? How much SCC bonus is missed between 90,000 and 300,000?
Let's say, hypothetically, there is a 20-cent SCC bonus that is being left on the table by the first dairy. That equates to roughly $714 per day, $5,000 per week or $260,000 per year – simply for milk quality. Let's say the first dairy is also missing out on 10 pounds of milk per day due to the rushed and incomplete milking. That equates to 42,000 pounds per day, or $8,400 per day, $58,800 per week or $3,057,600 per year – with a $20 per hundredweight (cwt) milk price.
Dairy A is generating $71,400 per day on 4,200 cows. Dairy B is generating $67,200 plus $672 (SCC bonus of 20 cents per cwt) = $67,872 per day on 3,200 cows. Dairy A is milking 1,000 more cows but only generating $3,528 more per day than Dairy B.
Points to consider
These dairies are extreme examples, but they are actual dairies I work with, and they illustrate my point well.
Reconsider how you are working to be profitable. Can you maximize your quota with fewer cows? Are you open to utilizing slightly more labor to allow your cows to be handled better? Think outside the box. What are your cows capable of if they are comfortable? Are the cows and employees enemies or co-workers? Evaluate this dynamic on your dairy. Let your cows be cows. Cutting labor to the point the cows feel stress is not helping you.
I could flesh out this same scenario with rotary parlors. Dairy producers who have an adequate number of people working on their wheels have superior SCC counts and harvest more milk per stall per hour. Well-prepped cows that are not in a state of fight or flight milk faster and more completely. This allows a faster wheel speed. I am seeing a resurgence of producers utilizing more than the bare minimum of employees in rotary parlors to achieve more efficiency and profitability.
Step back and evaluate what is making you money. Are you as profitable as you could be with your current cow numbers? Cutting labor to the bone is not a path to profitability in my experience. Allowing the cow to be a cow is a much better move.
