herd testing on ams farms in new zealand
TRANSCRIPT
Milk Production Recording in New ZealandHerd testing on AMS farms
Claudia Kamphuis, Sue Petch, Sally-Anne Turner
Global adoption rates of robotic milking
year
Num
ber o
f AM
S fa
rms g
loba
lly
1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 20130
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
9000
10000
Adapted from: De Koning. 2010.
New Zealandn = 1
GreenfieldN = 1
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 20130
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
Greenfield
NZ adoption rates of robotic milking
year
Num
ber o
f AM
S fa
rms N
Z
First commercial farmsN = 3
N farm = 15 Units = 74 (2-24)
AMS farms in NZ
North Island South Island
The challenge of milk recording data
No standard for cows milked 24/7●Illegal to submit data to national database
Less accurate genetic merit of milk traits
‘I am frustrated because I am not allowed to manage my herd as other NZ farmers can and I feel discriminated for being innovative’ (AMS farmer enrolled in DairyNZ study)
The challenge of milk recording data
Draft protocol (Jago and Burke, 2013)●Based on Greenfield data●Continuous collection of milk samples for 48h
Two issues ●Expensive, time-consuming, interrupts daily routine●Low milking frequency (1.3 times/day)
Objective: Reduce sampling period & maintain accuracy
5 commercial AMS farms●Range of herd sizes, breeds, management●Two major AMS suppliers involved●Throughout 2012/2013 milking season
12 herd tests (range 1 – 5)
2,879 cow herd tests
Collect & process milk recording data Estimate 24h milk yield for each cow
●Sum all yields within sampling period●Divide by sum of milking intervals (days)
Sampling periods●48h Gold Standard●36h●16h
Evaluation parameters●Correlation coefficient ●Proportion of cows without herd test results
In-line milk meter for yield from AMS management
system
Results: milk samples per cow herd test
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 90.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
4.2
16.6
34.0
30.3
6.74.0 2.7 1.5
0.03
Average number of milk samples per 48h sampling periodn = 12 herd tests
Cow
herd
test
s (%
) % cow herd tests with >3 milk samples: 45%
8162432404895.0
96.0
97.0
98.0
99.0
100.0
Results: Correlation coefficient
Length of sampling period (h)
Corre
latio
n co
efficie
nt (r
)
121836
Results: Proportion missed cows
816243240480
10
20
30
40
1836
Length of sampling period (h)
Miss
ed c
ows (
%)
12
>5% of cows were missed in 75% of the herd tests
Conclusions
48h sampling period:●Wide range of milk samples per herd test (1-9)●>45% of herd tests had >3 milk samples
Feasible to reduce sampling period and maintain accuracy●Depending on average milking frequency ●Prevent too many cows without results
Future work: correlation coefficients forfixed samples and milk composition
Corre
latio
n co
efficie
nt (r
)
# of milk samples
1 milk sample2 milk samples3 milk samples0.75
0.8
0.85
0.9
0.95
1
Fat percent Milk yield
AcknowledgementsBarbara DowSarah TaukiriJennie BurkeAugustus RiusTechnical team Farmers
Funded by:NZ dairy farmers through DairyNZ and the Ministry for Primary Industries through the Primary Growth Partnership