Effects of habituation to the milking parlour on production, health and fertility of Norwegian and Holstein dairy herd replacements

Abstract

During the transition period (defined as three weeks prior to calving to three weeks post-calving) heifers are exposed to physiological, nutritional, management, and social changes as they enter the dairy herd. One obvious change is the introduction of heifers to the milking parlour. Previous work has shown that when mature cows were milked in unfamiliar surroundings, milk yield, milk flow rate and milking duration were affected due to increased stress (Rushens, et al. 2001). The objective of the current study was to investigate the effects of habituating heifers to the milking parlour pre-calving on the subsequent performance of Holstein-Friesian and Norwegian dairy herd replacements.