The relationships between udder-quarter somatic-cell counts and milk and milking parameters in cows managed with an automatic milking system
Beata Sitkowska
A B , Dariusz Piwczyński A and Magdalena Kolenda A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Department of Animal Biotechnology and Genetics, Faculty of Animal Breeding and Biology, UTP University of Science and Technology, 28 Mazowiecka Street, 85-084 Bydgoszcz, Poland.
B Corresponding author. Email: beatas@utp.edu.pl
Animal Production Science 60(15) 1830-1837 https://doi.org/10.1071/AN18644
Submitted: 20 November 2018 Accepted: 1 April 2020 Published: 2 June 2020
Abstract
Context: Some milking parameters such as milk yield, milk flow, milking duration, milk conductivity and somatic-cell count can all be listed as economically important traits in dairy practice.
Aims: The aim of the study was to investigate the relationships among lactation stage, lactation number, milking season and milk-performance traits at an udder-quarter level, including somatic-cell count (SCC), milk yield (MY), milking duration (MD), time in box (TB), milk flow (MF) and milk conductivity (MC). An additional aim was to analyse milking-parameter levels in milkings with a SCC lower and higher than 400 000 cells/mL.
Methods: The study included an analysis of 1 621 582 successful milkings obtained from six herds of dairy cattle equipped with milking robots (AMS).
Key results: The study confirmed that MD and MY differed greatly between front and rear quarters. Rear quarters took longer to be milked but produced more milk. During the first 100 days of lactation, the primiparous cows spent more time in the robot than did multiparous cows; however, in the second and third lactations, older cows were spending more time in the AMS. For primiparous cows, MF increased with time, being the highest at the end of lactation (>200 days in milk). A different trend has been found in the group of multiparous cows, where a steady decrease in MF was observed with subsequent lactation stages. A lower MC was recorded for cows in their first lactation than for multiparous cows. Data obtained from primiparous cows showed the highest MC to occur between 100 and 200 days of lactation. In the group of multiparous cows, MC increased with the lactation stage. It was also shown that the mean values obtained for MY, MD and TB were higher for cows with a lower SCC (<400 000). Correlations between lnSCC (the natural logarithm of SCC) and MY and between lnSCC and MD were negative and low, while those between lnSCC and MC and lnSCC and MF were positive. Moderate correlations were found between lnSCC and total MC.
Conclusions: The study confirmed the differences in the performance of different udder quarters in relation to MY, MD, TB, MF, MS and SCC.
Implications: AMS provides farmers with vast data on milk and milking parameters. By monitoring changes in these parameters, farmer may be able to predict the level of production of their herd and the health of cows.
Additional keywords: duration, milking conductivity, milking flow, quarter milk.
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