Effect of cow traffic type on automatic milking system performance in dairy farms

The performance of automatic milking system (AMS) units on three farms with free and directed cow traffic was examined in this study. Farm A housed 123 Holstein cows and used free traffic. Farms B and C housed 104 and 102 Holstein cows, respectively, and both used milk-first-cow traffic. Daily milking frequency per cow was highest on Farm B (2.85), followed by Farm C (2.69), and Farm A (2.36). Although the daily milking rate per cow was lowest on Farm A, the daily milking yield was higher than those on the other two farms (Farm B, 25.30 kg; Farm C, 24.33 kg) with 27.33 kg. The number of daily refusals was significantly higher on Farm A (34.93) compared to refusals on the other two farms (P