Auswirkungen der muttergebundenen Kälberaufzucht auf das Melkverhalten der Kühe

The introduction of mother-bonded calf rearing into organic dairy farming faces some problems. Regarding the cow, the disturbed milk ejection seems to be the most important one. We compared two groups of cows, which had permanent (Kp, n=11) or temporarily (Kt,n=13) contact to their calves until the 90th day p.p. with cows separated from their offspring within 24 h after calving (Ko, n=24). Since suckling following the machine milking strongly influences milk ejection, the Kt-cows were allowed to meet their calves 15 minutes before the usual milking times (milking interval 10:14 hours) in a separated area. Milk flow curves were recorded at the 6th day after calving and afterwards every fortnight at least until the 90th day of lactation. At the same time bucket milk samples of each cow were collected. Results showed clear differences between the groups with and without calf contact. In these groups, the milk yield gained by machine milking was much lower (up to 10 kg per milking, p<0.001) and contained less fat (- 1%, p<0.001). The frequency of bimodal flow curves did not differ between the groups due to the loss of the cisternal milk in the Kt and Kp-group. Mean milk flow was reduced in the suckled cows and decreased significantly in the investigated period from 1.4 to 0.6 and from 1.1 to 0.8 kg min-1 (F2,463=27.36, p