Reliability of Milk Recording Data Under Conditions of Automatic Milking System

Abstract

Automatic milking system (AMS) brings a change in approach to ensure the data reliability in the official milk recording (MR). The AMS is equipped with flowmeter. AMS software provides the daily milk yield (DMY) and average of the last 7 daily milk yields (AVG7) for MR. Classic MR uses DMY. AVG7 could be more reliable value. Origin of both records (DMY and AVG7) is from AMS flowmeter. The aim of paper was to compare the values of milk yield of cows from daily (DMY) and the extended records (AVG7) from AMS for objective assess of lactations to be used in cattle breeding. Study (2013) with 2 AMS herds (DeLaval and Lely Astronaut): herd 1 – Holstein (H) dairy cows; herd 2 – Czech Fleckvieh (CF) dairy cows. There were following milk records: n = 521 DeLaval (H); n = 567 Lely Astronaut (CF); 70 (H) and 68 (CF) dairy cows. MR samples were analyzed on: fat content; crude protein; somatic cell count. Correlations between AVG7 and DMY were: 0.888 (H); 0.898 (CF, both P ≤ 0.001). There were insignificant differences (P > 0.05; −0.07 ± 3.29 kg for H and 0.28 ± 3.3 kg for CF) between AVG7 and DMY for both robots. The same is valid for differences in the production of milk components. According to this comparison experiment the AVG7 of AMS is a suitable equivalent for the DMY regarding official MR for assessment of lactations.