Some 75% of dairy farmers start evening milking after 5pm, is it time for a change? Dairy Specialist at Teagasc, Martina Gormley discusses the benefits of a 16:8 milking split.

‘The time the cows are milked at matters’ is a saying that has been around for some time, often used when discussing on-farm milking time – particularly evening milking time.

75% of dairy farmers start milking after 5pm. For a small percentage, this time is set by the stage of the family. This is perfectly fine and an opportunity for change will come down the line. For the majority, however, the reason for 5pm is tradition and habit. If this is the case on your farm, ask yourself:

• Does time expand to fill the time available?
• Are inefficiencies occurring on the back of this?
• And is a 7pm or later finish time making dairy farming look unattractive?

A typical working day typically looks like:

• 30am – Morning milking start
• 9am – Break
• 10am to 1pm – Farm work
• 1pm to 2pm – Lunch
• 2pm to 5pm – Farm work
• 5.00pm – Start evening milking
• 7.00pm – Finished Milking and lock cows back in paddock

Milking time usually frames the day, as it is the start and finish time on most farms. After lunch, there are three hours before evening milking. If evening milking was brought forward to 4pm, there is now two hours. What would happen if you lost this hour?

• Less work done
• Same work done but work more efficiently
• Would need to outsource some work to get same work done

Farmers who have made the switch and now start evening milking at 4pm say that time does in fact expand to fill the time that’s available and, at times, they were hanging around waiting for milking time. Research shows that there is very little – if any – change in milking times by season. Therefore, milking time is a habit/tradition on most farms.

For a 16:8 hour milking interval (7am morning start and 3pm evening start), there is no reduction in milk yield because of milking earlier. Now is a great time to change evening milking time. There is nothing stopping you going back out working after milking. The key thing is that the most important job is done, and after that you can decide to take an evening off or go back out.

More from Teagasc Daily: Benefits of having a relief milker this summer

More from Teagasc Daily: Teat liners – time for a change?

Moorepark Open Day

Taking place on Wednesday, July 2, the Moorepark Open Day will feature a Working Effectively Village, where topics such as making dairy farms an attractive workplace, generational renewal options and education and career pathways will be discussed and showcased.

Conor Hogan gives us an overview of what to expect at the Working Effectively Village at the Moorepark Open Day below:

Find out more and plan your visit to the Moorepark Open Day here.