Adaptation strategy of different cow genotypes to the voluntary milking system

Abstract

The aim was of this study was to discover the adaptation indicators of different breeds first-calving cows to voluntary (robotic) milking system during the first month of lactation. The research was carried out in a robotic farm on German Holstein, French Holstein breeds and Brown Swiss breed of cows. During the adaptation period, the German Holsteins were differed from the rench Holsteins and Brown Swiss breed by milk yield, multiplicity of milking, and the amount of consumed concentrated feed. On the 30th day (end of adaptation period), the German Holstein breed dominated over the French Holstein breed and Brown Swiss having average daily milk yield by 0.73 and 4.12 kg, milking times by 0.26 and 0.34, the amount of consumed concentrated feed by 0.32 and 0.61 kg higher. In addition, the German Holstein breed during the adaptation period was distinguished by higher multiplicity of passages through the selection gate and the number of visits to feed stations. Important indicators of adaptation to free keeping and voluntary milking are the number of cases of forced milking. On the 5th day of lactation, some 69.4–86.2% of cows of all the groups did not enter the milking robot. This indicator has been steadily declining every five days. On the 30th day of lactation the cases of operator-forced milking were 24.3–35.9% and they were the lowest in cows of the German Holstein breed, indicating the best adaptive qualities of this cattle. The German Holstein breed had more lower (by 0.30 and 0.26 mS/cm) electrical milk conductivity on the 30th day compared with French and Brown Swiss breeds. In addition, the number of somatic cells in its milk was lower by 19.4 and 17.1 thousand cells per cm3 compared with French Holstein and Brown Swiss breed. Therefore, we suggested that the German Holstein breed has more higher stress tolerance, and hence a shorter adaptation time to the keeping.