www.lely.com

Age HempeniusFarm Management Support

Cow management

Schedule

• The cow:• Origin of the cow• Digestion of the cow• Life cycle of the cow

• Cow management:• Free cow traffic• Barn lay-out• Cow signals

Origin of the cow

• Cows 700 B.C. (the Bos Primig)• Behaviour:

• Active early morning and late evening• Living in small groups headed by a single bull• Cow delivers calf separated from the group• Cow prefers ‘contact’ with group

Development of the cow in time

• 250 – 330 cm long now: 245 cm• 170 – 220 cm tall now: 145 cm• 70 – 100 cm tail• 700 – 1000 kg now: 650 kg

Different breeds

Development of cow figures

• Pregnancy time: 275 days now: 280 days• Number of calves: 1 calf now: 1 or 2 calves• Weaning: 7 – 9 months now: 7 – 9

weeks• Sexually mature: 3 years now: 2 years• Lifetime: 30 years now: 3,5 years

Digestion of the cow

• Cow is a ruminant• Digestion in two steps:

• Chewing and swallowing the normal way (3 – 5 hours)• Regurgitating and re-chewing the feed (7 – 10 hours)

• Other ruminants: goat, sheep, deer• Fibrous feed is necessary for maintaining rumination

Stomachs of the cow

• The cow has 4 stomachs:• The rumen 100 – 120 kg digestion material• The reticulum sorting mechanism (1 – 2

mm)• The omasum capacity 10 litters• The abomasum ‘real’ stomach

• Cows eat 9 – 14 meals per day

Anatomy

Rumen Papillae

Ration

• Fresh grass, silage, maize, concentrates• Product content:

• Water• Dry matter

• Protein• Energy• Vitamins and minerals

Protein Sugar Starch Fiber Fat

Mais Silage - -- +++ ++ -

Grass Silage ++ ++ --- ++ -

Alfalfa ++ + --- +++ -

Soya +++ + --- + +

Sugarbeet pulp - + --- ++ -

Cotton seeds + -- -- ++ +++

Wheat - -- +++ + -

Good digestion

• Short term:• Healthy and active cows• Good rumen fill (8 contractions / 5 minutes)• Optimal manure consistency and color

• Long term:• Good claw health• Good reproduction status• Successful robotic milking

Rumen fill score 1 to 5

Score 1 Score 2

Score 3

Score 4 Score 5

Milk production

• Udder is divided in four quarters• Every 1 litre of milk requires a passage of 400 litres of

bloodAverage production per year

year # herds cows/herd average age kg milk % fat % protein kg fat kg protein kg fat + protein EAR2007 17.557 70 4.09 8.197 4,37 3,51 358 288 646 20722002 21.268 61 4.07 7.671 4,45 3,50 341 268 609 1942

EAR =economic annual result

Life cycle of the cow

• From calving to dry off is one lactation (marked red)

• After each calving, the cow can be breed again

Birth

Weaning (7-9 weeks)

Breeding (15 months)

First calf (24 months)

Breeding (after 60 days)

Dry off (6-8 weeks before calving)

Calving

Two types of motivation

• By negative motivation/ punishment: if they do not give the milk, they will not get anything to eat! Or: if they do not give the milk they are not allowed to lay down.

• By positive stimulation: Attract them with concentrate (Lely style).

Different kinds of cow traffic

• Motivation by punishment

• Motivation by stimulation (attraction)

1. Forced routing

2. Guided cow traffic

3. Feed-first

1. Free cow traffic (Lely)

Forced routing

Forced routing

Benefits Negative

• Easy to understand for the farmer, since it is like the old parlor.

• Hard to learn for the cows. Much more queues of cows waiting.

• More over-capacity needed to generate success. This makes it more expensive.

• Health problems. Rank low animals do not have a chance to show natural behavior, they suffer.

Guided cow traffic

Guided cow traffic

Benefits Negative

• Easy to understand for the farmer, since it is like the old parlor.

• Hard to learn for the cows. Much more queues of cows waiting.

• Cows that do not need to be milked can go to the feed fence without passing the robot.

• More over-capacity needed to generate success. But less than with forced traffic.

• Health problems. Rank low animals do not have a chance to show natural behavior.

Feed-first

• GPS system for cows needed?

Feed-first concept

Benefits Negative

• Easy to understand for the farmer, but harder as guided or forced routing.

• Cows will queue in front of the robot. Cows can not do what they want.

• Cows have easy access to roughage.

• Health problems. Cows lay down with open teat channels and will lay down in the feed passage.

• Cows get the concentrate in the cubicle area. This is without roughage, which results in a low pH in the rumen for several hours.

• High investment in gates.

Free cow traffic

Free cow traffic (Lely)

Benefits Negative

• Easy to learn for the cows, high capacity of the robot.

• Hard to understand for some farmers.

• Cows can always eat roughage. Rank low cows perform the best.

• Healthiest cow system. Even better as with old parlour, since a cow can freely move 24 hours per day.

High Welfar

e

Increase

profit

Less work

Sorry

• Space is most important

Barn lay-out

Barn lay-out

• Guidelines:• From robot to first obstacle: 4.5 meter• Between two rows cubicles: 3.0 meter• Behind the feed fence: 4.0 meter• Passage: 2.0 meter• Passage with drinking troughs: 4.0 meter

Space

Bedding

Cow comfort

Feeding is key factor!

Why do farmers buy a robot?

• A better social life• Reduce labor costs• Interested in new technique• Improve udder health• Milk cows more often