More than 40% of Canterbury and Otago-Southland farms have gone to flexible milking for at least four weeks of the season.
Between 20-30% of farms have switched to early-season once-a-day (OAD) milking compared with the national average of 15% of spring-calving herds using early-season OAD.
Dairy NZ has tracked farmers adjusting their milking frequency depending on changing conditions or their team’s needs to increase workplace enjoyment and generate better staff retention.
Senior scientist Dr Paul Edwards said the reasons for farmers moving away from traditional twice daily milkings were reasonably diverse, but could be broken down to people and animals.
"By and large the point at which people start to do different things is relatively consistent across the regions at about 40% to 50% of the way through the season where twice a day really starts to decrease and they start using different milking frequencies. For Canterbury and Otago-Southland in particular that’s the point where they are going to a flexible milking approach like three [milkings] in two [days] and 10-in-seven. They are really only going once a day in that last [month]."
He said farmers had different lactation lengths and this would vary within regions also having different starting points.
"That switch point about half way through the season does tend to coincide when people tend to take a bit more time off and the pressure probably comes off a little bit for the farm work. Our seasonal calving systems have this very concentrated work pattern to them where you are calving and not long after that you are mating and doing summer cropping so when you’re in pasture surplus your cutting silage and people have hit their peak as well so it’s a really busy time. Then the pressure comes off a bit and people want to spend time with their family so they are going to a flexible milking approach and it increases that flexibility to give people some extra days off."
Farmers adjusting to flexible milking still want to maintain milk production through January and February.
"If you haven’t switched at that point then the reasons for switching later on do tend to probably gravitate more towards the animals where in autumn it could be about lameness if autumn rain has come through and your track condition has deteriorated a little bit or it could be around body condition score. Putting a whole herd on three-in-two, for example, is going to start putting condition on cows. However, if you have a light group of cows that you really want to look after then you might end up keeping some of the herd on twice a day and some of them on once a day. There’s lots of different approaches out there."
A farmlet study in the 2020 season found changing from twice daily to three-in-two was equivalent to about 5% decrease in revenue. But there are also clear cost savings such as lower power and fuel costs from 16% less milking time and a value needed to be placed on a herd’s higher body condition score which could result in a better milk production and reproductive performance next year.
Dr Edwards said the people benefits were more intangible, but still had a value.
Early milking starts are often burdensome for staff who expect to be compensated for them. A survey last year showed 55% of prospective dairy employees expect an extra $5000 to $10,000 in pay to start at 5am instead of 6am.
In a pilot study, farm workers on three-in-two milking during spring were found to sleep 27 minutes more per night starting from the third week of calving, compared with team-mates on two nearby farms milking twice daily.
Dr Edwards said the "fairly conclusive" result of the small study indicated it benefited staff rather than disrupting their sleep.
"Someone’s attempt at putting a value on that intangible [of later starts] we don’t actually see that often. How close that is to reality who knows, but it does give you a sense of how much people value that extra hour’s sleep at a questionable hour of the day."
He said the 20%-30% of Canterbury and Otago Southland farms switching to early-season OAD milking at early lactation showed farmers were adopting flexible milking.
"I suspect part of the driver behind that could be the adoption of wearable technologies like cow collars."
Milking can account for more than half of the labour hours used on dairy farms and reducing the frequency can decrease work hours or allocate more time for other tasks and provide more flexible working hours for staff.
Nationally, about 40% of farms are milking twice-a-day for the full season, down from 65% over the past decade.
For three-in-two milking, the intervals might be 12 hours between milkings, then 18 hours and another 18 hours, or they might be 10, 19 and 19 hours, or 8, 20 and 20.
Another popular option of 10 milkings in seven days has lifestyle benefits, particularly for weekend schedules.
Since Fonterra’s rollout of milk vat monitoring in 2020, the industry has gained a deeper understanding of the timing and use of milking frequencies.
Dr Edwards said DairyNZ would continue monitoring milking trends.
