Description
Since autumn 2018, the Schwarting/Vos family from Stadland in Lower Saxony have been milking their 130 lactating dairy cows with an automatic milking system – three single milking robots have been installed in the old milking parlour. Nothing out of the ordinary in this day and age. A special feature, however, is that Jörg Schwarting wants to maintain full grazing over the summer despite the change in milking technology. The farmer manages 92 hectares, being exclusively permanent grassland. The cows can graze on 68 hectares. In the region, grazing offers a cost advantage. Together with their milking technician they looked for a solution. In the end, they decided on a three-way selection. The movement of the cows to the planned grazing area is encouraged by offering them fresh pasture. A so-called ABA model was implemented: in this system two grazing areas are always used in parallel. This means that at certain times and with certain milking rights, the cows can only walk in the direction of pasture A and, after a certain time and with certain milking rights, in the direction of pasture B. In between there is the stable with the three milking robots. The selection gates controls the path network and the cows. For the cows the bait is the sure knowledge that fresh, tasty fodder is available after milking on the pasture. In the full grazing system, this is the newly allocated part of the pasture. For the third milking, the cows are lured over the grass silage on the feed alley.
