Dry summer management - milking OAD or every 16 hours (1-33C)

Last updated: November 2010

Summary:

Once a day (OAD) or 16 hourly milking takes the pressure off cows by reducing the incidence of heat stress and energy loss, especially if walking long distances to be milked.
OAD can also reduce stress on staff and free time to do other tasks such as feeding out.
OAD milking can enable body condition score (BCS) targets to be met and set the farm up to maximise days in milk from autumn growth.
Research results indicate that there are no production losses where the milking interval is up to 18 hours.
It is far better to plan to milk OAD before feed runs short than to be forced into it by a severe shortage of feed. Summer OAD should be a planned system change and not a reaction to current conditions, to manage BCS and labour levels.