The effect of milking frequency and intervals on milk production and functional properties of the cows’ udder in automatic milking systems

The objective of this study was to describe the association between the milking frequency and milk production and to determine the effect of milking intervals on the functional properties of the udder of cows in automatic milking systems. Thousand eight milking recordings were enrolled in the study, in total, 106 Holstein cows were observed. The results of studies showed that at a daily milk yield per cow of 22.0 ± 0.6 (means ± SD) kg, the milking frequency was 2 times (13.5 % of the total number of milkings), 32.7 ± 0.4 kg – 3 times (57.2 %), 37.7 ± 0.6 kg – 4 times (28.0 %), 51.3 ± 4.1 kg – 5 times (1.3 %). An increase in the daily milk yield due to a reduction in the milking interval has been established (p<0.001). However, milk yield per milking has the opposite tendency (p<0.001). The average and maximum milk flow rates increased with an increase in the milking interval and reached the highest values in the interval of 7.50–8.99 hours – 2.36 and 3.36 kg/min, respectively (p