Familiarising heifers with the milking facilities and getting them parlour trained is the final piece of the puzzle for getting heifers prepared for calving down and joining the milking herd.
It has taken a lot to get heifers in calf and on target for calving down at two-years-of-age, and so farmers need to continue this care by familairising heifers with the milking facilities.
Farmers are aware of the costs involved in getting heifers to this stage of their life, and so it is crucial that their introduction to the milking herd is planned.
There is no doubt, that this task requires time and patience, which often turns off famers from doing it, but it will result in saved time in the long run.
It has been proved that pre-calving handling of the milking environment can reduce adverse reactions of heifers when they join the milking herd.
The benefits of training heifers into the milking parlour prior to calving are quite simple as it decreases the stress for heifers and people, as they are easier to manage and leads to increased milk production and lower somatic cell count (SCC).
Familiarising heifers
Heifers will need to have a positive experience when introduced to the new environment of the milking parlour, and will need to have at least three to seven introductions to completely familarise them with the parlour.
Handling of heifers needs to be done in a calm and subtle manner in order to let the heifers into the parlour with ease and limited stress.
Ideally, heifers should be brought into the parlour and fed a small bit of meal so that they can associate the parlour with a positive experience.
Running the heifers through the parlour at their own ease will also allow the farmer to give extra concentrates to heifers that are a bit under-condition.
Not alone that, but by running heifers through the parlour, farmers can see the full picture of what is going on with the heifers, as heifers with warts or infections can detected and treated promptly.
Heifers should be teat sprayed as they come in, just to decrease the bacteria load and the risk of mastitis as they are coming in and out of the parlour.
Another method of training heifers in to the parlour is to put one or two older cows in with the untrained heifers so they can essentially show them the way.
Training heifers
It is best to introduce the heifers to the milking routine gradually and the following method is the best way to familarise the heifers to the milking process according to DairyNZ, as follows:
- Let the heifers into the gathering yard and let them find their own way out quietly through the exit gates while leaving the machine off;
- The next step is to shut the exit gate and line them up in parlour as if they were milking while leaving the machine off;
- The next time through the parlour, handle them gently around the udder and turn the milking machine on;
- Continue the next few steps with machine on and feeling the udder while applying some teat spray and concentrates.
It is important to do everything in a calm manner as any little bit of controversy can startle the heifers which can lead to high stress levels and a poor experience with the parlour.
Stressing heifers can lead to a high SCC, as if a heifer or cow becomes stressed it can cause a depressed immune system, triggering a mastitis infection or a jump in SCC.
Walking heifers through the parlour and familiarising them with the environment will limit this stress when heifers calve down, which leads to better quality milk production and earlier milk let down.
