Arbetsåtgång i mjölkproduktion beroende på besättningsstorlek samt mekaniserings- och automatiseringsgrad

In constructing or rebuilding a dairy barn, it’s normally only the cost of investment for the building (climatic barrier, foundation, floor and installations) that is evaluated in the capital investment estimate. Indirect costs as labour, forage, maintenance or animal health that occur because of differences in the building function are not considered. A simple and cheap building may lead to higher operating costs. Low costs for mechanization may lead to high labour costs and that’s why it’s important to include all building related costs when comparing construction and installations alternatives. This report shows results from manual work time studies from 13 farms with dairy cows in loose housing, representing different herd sizes (80 to 450 cows) and levels of mechanization (Automatic milking system, AMS, fixed and rotary parlour and level of mechanisation of feed distribution). The farms were visited both afternoon and morning during season with no grazing. The farmers and the cattle employees answered a questionnaire about work routines and herd information. Following type of work procedures were investigated: dairy cows (milking cleaning of parlour, feeding, littering, and cleaning of cubicles and other work), heifers (feeding, littering, cleaning and other work) and calves (milk feeding, feeding, littering, cleaning and other work). All figures are given as minutes per milking cow and day. There were big time differences between equal milking systems. The AMS barns had the shortest work time for milking (0.27 to 0.80 min/cow and day). The various milking time in the AMS stables depended on the numbers of alarms and cows needed to be caught for milking. Work time in the milking parlours (1.84 to 3.96 min/cow and day) depended on use of automatic cow gate or herd dog that pushed the cows. For calves, work time varied from 0 min (suckling cows) to 0.57 min/cow and day. Work time for the young stock varied considerable (0.32 to 1.05 min/cow and day). Five model farms were constructed to show the effect of number of cows and the level of mechanization on the working time. With AMS in a 140 head herd and with a high degree of mechanization, the work time became 2.1 min/cow and day. The work time became three times higher (6.28 min/cow and day) in a herd of the same size using 2x8 herringbone parlour and with a low tech mechanisation. The effect of both herd size and level of mechanization was shown in the 400 head herd with a rotary parlour and a mobile mixer wagon where the work time became 3.87 min/cow and day