Once-a-day (OAD) milking is the practice of milking cows only once during a 24-hour period and is common in many regions. In Northland for example, 31% of farmers milk full-season OAD.
Reasons to consider OAD milking
The advantages will depend on your farm system or layout and can include:
- Less time spent milking cows
- To reduce staff pressure
- Feed shortage (plan to milk OAD before feed runs short rather than be forced into it)
- Stock health (lame cows, light cows, heifers, milk-fever prone cows)
- Reproduction (non-cyclers, heifers or whole herd in a feed shortage)
- Small dairy shed for herd size
- Farm layout (walking distance to shed)
OAD milking options
When milking OAD, you can choose any time of the day to milk, but the timing can have a big impact on cows and people, particularly during the hot summer months.
The key message is that there are a range of options possible, allowing you to choose milking times that best suit your team.