Selected welfare parameters of milk cows in relation to milking by a robot.

The aim of this work was to gather and evaluate the evidence about the behaviour of dairy cows during the milking by a robot (including physiological reactions running after the milking). The following parameters were observed: number of milking per 24 hours, the time from onset to the robot and the teat cup deployment, the time between milking, the total time of milking, milk yield with each milking, average and total milk yield per day. The results were measured separately in heifers and in cows on the second and subsequent lactations. In the same time, there was also observed the behaviour of cows after leaving the milking robot - feed and water intake, physical activity and the rest for the time of 30 minutes after the milking. Simultaneously, there was also observed the effect of milking technology for the health of the cows, focused on diseases of the mammary gland. There were three ethologic observations which always lasted 24 hours. In addition to the observed data, there were evaluated the data records obtained from the milking machine (e. g. milk yield per one milking, the interval between single milkings, etc.). There were observed an average of 60 pieces of cows. Throughout the watching the cows in the barn behaved calmly and contentedly. They came to the milking machine spontaneously, only a few cases had to be herded for milking by the caregiver. However, they were all the heifers which did not have the sufficient experience with the milking. The counting of teat cup deployment attempts had to be abandoned because of the close proximity of the observer at the milking robot. In this case, the cows were not quiet and did not want to go in the robot spontaneously. The mammary gland disease was diagnosed at an average of 6.9 pieces of milked cows per one month. This high number of cases is ascribed to a poor hygiene of the stables and a poorer quality of feeding. This work was created in cooperation with the grants NAZV QJ1210144 and NAZV QJ1530058