Five practical tips to reduce labour when grazing with an automatic milking system

Within the Robot & Grazing? For Each Other! project, practical experience and knowledge are gathered on combining automatic milking with grazing. Based on these insights, five practical tips have been developed to help dairy farmers reduce labour and organise grazing more efficiently.

1. Create a predictable daily routine

Keeping fixed times for opening the pasture and moving a fence creates a calmer herd and reduces labour for the dairy farmer.

2. Minimise the need to fetch cows

A good balance between grass availability, walking routes and automatic milking system settings encourages cows to return to the milking robot on their own. This saves daily labour.

3. Invest in a well-designed paddock layout

Short walking distances, logical routing and easily accessible paddocks make grazing easier and save time in the long term.

4. Graze young stock

Heifers with grazing experience find their way between the barn and the pasture more easily later in life. This creates a calmer first grazing season and reduces the labour involved during this period.

5. View grazing as a management practice

Most of the labour involved in grazing is not spent walking to the field, but on daily observation, planning and making timely adjustments. Thinking ahead about grass growth, weather conditions and cow traffic helps prevent extra work and allows farmers to get more out of grazing.