Measurement of cow comfort during milking on different cluster removal settings through the use of leg-mounted accelerometers

Abstract

Increasing levels of data are routinely collected on modern dairy farms. These include multiple variables measured by milking machine sensors and software and cow-attached sensor data, used predominantly for fertility and health monitoring. Following milking efficiency principles, including milking gently, quickly, and completely, there is utility in investigating how various milking machine settings affect gentleness of milking through a proxy measurement of cow comfort during milking. The use of leg-mounted accelerometers was investigated as a noninvasive labor-efficient means of estimating cow comfort on different automatic cluster remover (ACR) milk flow-rate switch-point settings. Accelerometer step count measurements during milking were collected from 37 cows divided into 2 groups allocated to either an ACR milk flow-rate switch-point setting of 0.2 kg/min or 0.8 kg/min for a 2-wk period and then crossed over to the other setting. Significantly more rear leg stepping occurred during daily milking (combined step count during a.m. and p.m. milkings) where the ACR activated at 0.2 kg/min (11.7 steps) compared with 0.8 kg/min (10.1 steps). Shorter milking interval between a.m. and p.m. milkings resulted in lower udder fill and reduced milk flow-rate. Under these lower udder fill conditions, rear leg movement, as an indicator of cow comfort, reduced when milk flow-rate switch-point for cluster removal increased from 0.2 kg/min (5.75 steps) to 0.8 kg/min (4.96 steps). There was no significant difference between stepping rates on both cluster removal settings during a.m. milkings. Similarly, no significant differences were noted in assessed postmilking teat condition, which was conducted after a.m. milking. The 0.2 kg/min setting extended total daily milking time by 70 s, resulting in lower mean flow-rates while producing similar milk yield. Higher vacuum levels at the teat-end were also recorded on this milking setting. This provides further incentive to consider cluster removal settings above 0.2 kg/min.