The decision to adopt automated milking systems is a commitment to technology and a major shift in herd management. Once installed, the primary challenge becomes maximizing the efficiency and productivity of the robot, which starts with getting every cow, especially your first-lactation heifers, to visit the machine willingly and frequently.
This has led to a major question for automated milking managers and their advisers: Is pretraining heifers a worthwhile investment of time and labor?
The research on this practice is far from unanimous. The evidence shows that a strong, consistent training program can provide significant returns, but the results of pretraining research are mixed. For producers, this means the answer is less about a single yes or no and more about logistics, management and farm-specific goals.
The cycle of success
Before diving into training, it is crucial to recognize the success for both cows and heifers begins before calving and in early lactation. Excellent pre-calving diet and management promote healthy fresh cows. Healthy and active fresh cows will result in high early-lactation visits to the robot, which promote milk production. High milk production then drives high partial mixed ration intake, which in turn drives more robot visits and higher overall production.
The goal of pretraining is to jump-start this cycle for the most vulnerable group: first-calf heifers. The management philosophy is simple: High visits early will develop the habit of visiting more frequently, resulting in higher total lactation yield. In theory, pretraining aims to remove the novelty of the robot before the stress of lactation begins.
The evidence: Where pretraining shines
When done well, pretraining provides measurable, profitable advantages for the first-calf heifer.
- Increased visits and reduced fetching: Studies consistently show that pretrained animals adapt faster. Research by Von Kuhlberg showed that training with a phantom robot reduced the proportion of animals that had to be fetched for milking during the first five days post-calving. Similarly, Brasier and colleagues found that pretrained heifers had significantly fewer fetches per day (1 versus 0.8) and a higher number of voluntary visits (4.2 versus 5.6) during the first three weeks post-calving.
- Higher milk production and peak: More data supporting pretraining comes from the Widegren thesis, which found that heifers trained for two weeks reached higher peaks and produced more milk through the first 20 weeks of lactation. This translates directly to higher profit. Heifers also had shorter milking intervals for the first weeks of lactation.
- Better milking behavior: Trained heifers showed significant improvement in ease of entry scores and better milk letdown scores in early lactation compared to controls.
- The financial incentive: Getting heifers off to a great start is highly profitable. On-farm research from Wisconsin showed that robot-milked cows that achieved 3X or more milkings per day by 22 days in milk saw a 6.04 pounds per day increase in milk production from 22 to 150 days in milk (DIM). At current milk prices, they calculated that the value of achieving that early milking frequency translates to a marginal gain of $172 to $200 per cow over that period.
The caveats: Mixed results and logistical hurdles
While the long-term benefits of achieving higher milking visits are clear, the research is mixed. Results vary, with some studies showing no benefit to pretraining. Here are some of the common denominators of studies that show inconsistent results.
- Inconsistent or too-short training: The overall takeaway from the research is that heifers trained longer had more visits and produced more milk. If the training period is too short or implemented poorly, the hoped-for benefits may not be achieved.
- The high-fetch versus low-fetch reality: The Stewart et al. study is interesting. It shows that pretrained heifers are individuals and react differently to pretraining. They retrospectively categorized heifers as either high-fetch (fetched greater than 0.5 times per day after seven DIM) or low-fetch (fetched less than 0.5 times per day after seven DIM). Not surprisingly, the high-fetch (milked 2.9 times per day) heifers averaged 59 pounds per day while the low-fetch (milked 3.8 times per day) heifers averaged 65 pounds per day during the first 23 days after calving. What is surprising is that seven of 11 heifers in the high-fetch group received pretraining, while only four of 11 heifers in the low-fetch group were pretrained. This demonstrates that pretraining is not a silver bullet and heifers respond differently. However, these results may be because the pretrained heifers were only trained for four days.
- Labor and facility constraints: Logistically, pretraining is an added burden on an already busy farm. It is important to think about whether pretraining fits in your management system. Taking the time to walk dry heifers through the robot twice a day for a couple of weeks requires discipline and dedicated labor. Some farms have tried installing dedicated training stalls in their close-up pens to make the process more efficient. If pretraining does not fit in your system, does focusing on aggressive lactating heifer fetching make more sense in your dairy?
- The whole-system approach: Ultimately, maximizing robot success comes down to a whole-system approach. If you cannot commit to a quality pretraining program, your focus must be on an excellent fresh cow management protocol.
- Fresh cow training: For the first two to three days, you must teach the heifer about the entire pen. Fetch them in the morning, evening and, if possible, one more time between. Most critically, guide – don’t chase – them to the robot. Chasing creates a negative association that can lead to a chronic fetch cow.
Pretraining, when executed with commitment and when done long enough, is potentially a tool to jump-start the heifer's transition and secure higher peak and persistent milk production. If labor or facilities are constraints, however, focusing on post-calving fresh cow management remains an alternative to increase heifer performance.
References omitted but are available upon request by sending an email to the editor.
