Milking Frequency and Persistency: Does Three Times a Day Still Pay?

Moving from two milkings a day to three is one of the oldest ways to squeeze more milk out of the same cows. It is also one of the easiest to get wrong, because the benefits show up in the tank and the costs show up in labor, feed and cow behavior. Penn State Extension's Michal Lunak has pulled the research together in Management Points to Consider when Increasing Milking Frequency. Most of the numbers below come from that review.

How much extra milk to expect

The range is wide. Studies of two versus three milkings report increases from about 4 percent to 25 percent, or roughly 5.5 to 10.7 pounds per cow per day. The review notes that the most commonly reported gain is 7 to 8 pounds per day. Individual studies it cites include:

• Higher responses in first- and second-lactation cows in an older trial, at 25 and 18 percent.
• Gains of 15 to 16 percent over the whole lactation in another study.
• A much smaller gain of 4 percent for first-calf and 3 percent for older cows in a more recent report.

Heat stress, long standing times and poor nutrition can keep cows from reaching the expected response, and the review notes that more than three milkings in early lactation was not effective in at least one trial.

Persistency

The response is not only about a higher peak, and some herds apply a short burst of added frequency to fresh cows rather than milking everyone three times for the whole lactation. The review cites work in which frequent milking for the first 21 days in milk, or three times a day for the whole lactation, improved somatic cell count, especially in high producers. The right program for your herd depends on what you can staff and feed.

Components: more pounds, lower percentages

Fat and protein percentages often fall slightly with more frequent milking, but pounds of both usually rise because total yield rises. The review reports fat percentage falling anywhere from about 0.1 to 1 point, or not at all, and protein falling by 0.02 to 0.4 points. In one study, daily fat yield rose roughly 9 to 10 percent and protein yield 9 to 12 percent. If your plant pays heavily on component pounds, that may help. If you are penalized on percentages, run the numbers first.

Udder health cuts both ways

More milkings can mean more vacuum exposure for teat ends. The University of Arizona's extension paper on balancing milk quality, udder health and parlor throughput makes the same point about parlor routines. The Penn State review recommends preventing overmilking and liner slippage, keeping equipment well maintained and considering automatic take-off settings toward the higher flow-rate end. Our guide to a consistent milking routine is a good companion, and the mastitis guide covers what to watch.

The cow time budget

This is the part producers underestimate. The review lays out a daily budget: about 16 to 17 hours for eating and resting, 2 to 3 hours for standing, walking and grooming, and about half an hour for drinking. That leaves roughly 2.5 to 3.5 hours for milking. Add an extra 1.5 hours of standing and feeding time falls by around 45 minutes, which the review equates to roughly 5 to 6 pounds of milk in lost intake. If the parlor schedule squeezes lying time, you pay twice. Review your cow comfort setup before adding a milking.

The labor and cost side

The review's worked example is blunt. At 15 dollars an hour, 2 hours per milking and 2 workers, the extra shift costs at least 21,900 dollars a year, and at a 22 dollar milk price the herd would need about 99,500 extra pounds just to cover that labor. Those inputs are the review's illustration and are dated, so plug in your own wage and milk price. It also says overall costs commonly rise about 30 to 50 percent when moving from two to three milkings, and budgets about 1 pound of dry matter per 2 to 3 extra pounds of milk.

A simple test for your herd

1. Write down the extra pounds you expect per cow using a conservative figure from the range above, not the best trial.
2. Subtract component percentage losses using your own milk check formula.
3. Add feed: extra dry matter and its price.
4. Add labor, utilities and supplies for the third milking, including night shifts.
5. Check the time budget: can cows still get their full rest and feeding window?
6. Trial a group, not the herd. Run a pen for a full lactation segment and compare with a matched control pen.

When it tends to pay, and when it does not

Three-times-a-day milking tends to work best where labor is available and affordable, the parlor has spare capacity, cows are comfortable, and milk or component prices are strong. It tends to disappoint where parlor time already eats into rest, where labor is tight, or where margins are thin enough that the added feed and labor eat the gain. Our enterprise budget guide helps you build the comparison. For what the broader industry is doing, see farm.fm's dairy section and the Agriculture Directory. This site is independent and not affiliated with any breed association.