Effect of milking with an automatic milking system on selected incides of cattle welfare

ABSTRACT The goal of this graduation thesis was to find out influence of milking machine on the behavior of dairy cows and detection of possible different influence of milking AMS on first-calver and milking cows after other lactation. The first part of this thesis was focused on the observation of the milking cows 30 minutes after the milking cows left the milking machine, which took place 24 hours and was focused on the activities of all dairy cows in the herd. The observation identified a need for food intake, drinking and lying down. Another part of this thesis was focused on average daily milk yield of whole herd and each cow as well by using data from milking machine Lely Astronaut, amount of using of milking machine, the duration of the preparation time for milking, time of milking. The results of each part were compared between the first-calver and the other dairy cows. During the day was found out a need for drinking after milking at 40.4% for first-calver and 41,7 % for cows with more than one lactation. A need for food intake was identified at the rate of 75 % for first-calver and 88,6 % for other cows. A need to lie down in 30 minutes after milking had 12% of first-calver and 13 % of the other cows. Total preparation time for milking was 2:04 minutes for first-calver and 1:54 minutes for the other cows