How do you keep cow traffic flowing between pasture and robot?

When combining robotic milking with grazing, you want to achieve two things at the same time: sufficient grass intake outdoors and enough visits to the milking robot. This requires active management. Within the Robot & Grazing study group, participating dairy farmers use a variety of strategies to achieve this.

Some farmers give their cows relatively free movement, while others deliberately select which cows are allowed outside or use a grazing gate. Dairy farmer Henry Steverink, for example, has had positive experiences with a grazing gate. Another participant currently has his cows selected via the robot first and then sends the group outside. This can sometimes be quite time-consuming.

Robot Capacity Is Important

An important factor to consider is the utilisation of the milking robot. One participant, for example, said that he had previously stopped using siesta grazing because the robots became too busy at certain times of the day. Now that more robot capacity is available, he is considering using this grazing method again.

The grazing system and the times at which cows are sent outside therefore need to be well aligned with the available robot capacity.

Fewer Milkings in Summer Are Not Necessarily a Problem

During the grazing season, the number of milkings may decrease, for example by 0.5 milking per cow per day compared with winter. The key is to determine how much of a decrease is acceptable and when adjustments are needed. Do not look only at the number of visits to the robot, but also at the total volume of milk produced.

Managing Cow Traffic Through Feed, Grass and Timing

Cow traffic is influenced by more than simply whether a fence is open or closed. The timing of grazing, feeding indoors, palatable grass, access to water, paddock size and supplementary feeding all affect where a cow prefers to go.

Within the study group, for example, farmers manage cow traffic by allowing the feed bunk to become empty before the cows are sent outside. Providing fresh feed later can then help attract the cows back towards the barn.

Effective Grazing

One important lesson from the study group is not to focus solely on the number of hours a cow spends outside. What matters most is that the hours spent at pasture are used effectively. A cow that consumes a large amount of grass while outside can achieve more in a shorter period than a cow that spends a long time outdoors but does little grazing.

The challenge is to strike the right balance between grass intake, robot visits, milk production and labour. There is no single standard formula for achieving this: the approach needs to suit the individual farm’s circumstances, objectives and available resources.

How Do Other Robotic Milking Farmers Do It?

The Robot & Grazing ambassadors also combine robotic milking with grazing on a daily basis. In a video, they share their experiences of managing cow traffic. Topics include access to water, whether or not to provide feed indoors, palatable grass, and the layout of the barn and farmyard. They also demonstrate how a grazing gate can help direct cows more effectively.

Watch the video and discover how other dairy farmers keep their cows moving between pasture and milking robot.