Effect of robotic milking on the behavior of breeding cows

With increasing consumption of milk and milk products, there were increased number of dairy cattle, but the increase of demand for dairy cows and thus to changes in technology and technique of milking, which would increase milk production, productivity, and improve the welfare of dairy cows. An efficient solution could be milking robots. The first robot was placed on a farm in the Netherlands in 1992. The introduction of robotic milking on agricultural farms in the Czech Republic began in 2003 when the main reason was a shortage of skilled manpower that would be willing to work in harsh working and sanitary conditions. The thesis aim was to assess the effect of milking by the milking robot on the behavior of breeding cows throughout the day in relation to milk yield and fertility in relation to lactation and genotypic classification (H100, HxC, C100). The behavioral monitoring was carried out in dairy farms Brloh (milking by milking robots) and Haklových Dvorech - the control group (in the milking house) in the period from August 2009 to January 2010. The data processing was done with using the Microsoft Excel program. For the evaluation of all parameters were observed in herds calculated basic statistics. Differences disappear individual indicators were evaluated single-factor analysis of variance. The first monitoring of the findings in cattle reproductive performance was the terms of genotype. The values were found favorable for fertility groups HxC in the both stables. Length insemination interval reached 69.1 days in ZD Brloh (compared to 110.1 of the ŠZP Haklovy Dvory), length of service period of 110.8 (vs. 142.9 days). In the meantime, the length (due to differences in the number of animals in the group) was a length of 409.5 versus 438.5 in the group of breeding cows milked in a milking house (ŠZP Haklovy dvory). Further indicators of fertility were evaluated in terms of lactation. The longest length of service period was recorded at 1st lactation in ŠZP Haklovy Dvory were 176 days. The shortest service period was found at the 3rd and subsequent lactations of 133.5 days. Insemination interval, indicating the search of breeding cows, which were in a rutting season, was roughly the same at all lactation ZD Brloh (range 72.7 to 78.2 days) for the ŠZP Haklovy Dvory was the longest period of time to 2 lactation (118.9 days). In terms of breeding cows for milk yield for each lactation cows achieve greater results in the production company with robotic milking (100 days - 3539.1 kg, 200 days - 6727.5 kg of milk 305 days - 9602.9 kg of milk). Compared to the control group, where a 100 days lactation cows milked 3240.06 kg of milk 200 days produced 5433 kg to 305 of milk and 5327.18 kg of milk daily. The behavioral surveillance in both companies was carried out for 24 hours using the interval method with a 10 minutes interval period. The largest part of the day the cows were lying. The second largest dairy operations were the category of standing, which represented the average length of 6.05 hours in ZD Brloh. In the ŠZP Haklovy Dvory was the time period 5.71 hours. The significant period between groups is also the time of feeding, which in the system with the milking in milking house is much shorter by 1.79 hours and it taken 3.71 hours. The length of the movement was in the milking house more than half the size shorter and was 0.32 hours. Also, the length of staying in the milking house was about half shorter and it was 0.22 hours