High season in the stable

In late autumn and the beginning of winter, there are absolute high-season peaks in the stable: the calving season for the cows is coming up. Despite all the work, I love this time because every birth is something special and I simply love cows and calves above all else. For me, there is nothing more beautiful in the stable than when the calves suck on the bucket with such appetite and hop around like little children.

In mid-January, it will be one year since we moved into the new stable with the dairy cows, which has made the daily work easier and greatly improved animal welfare, which is on everyone’s lips these days.

I would like to offer my farm-story readers the chance to virtually join us for a milking session in the stable. We show what the processes are, how much work it takes for milk to finally end up in the tank, what needs to be considered, and how the cows are rewarded at the end of every milking session.

Will you join us for this daily routine? Yes – okay, then let’s get started. After the daily feeding work, the loose housing stable is cleaned shortly before six o’clock in the morning; part of the manure removal is done automatically by the scraper, and we do the rest by hand with a pusher.

At the feed table, you push the feed closer to the feeding barrier for the cows and sweep everything together. If there’s a lot of feed at the feed table, the men drive the farm tractor; otherwise, this work is done by hand.

In the milk room, everything technical for milking must now be prepared – checking whether the tank has the cooling temperature of 4-5°C, switching the lever to milking, and in the milking parlor, the technology is also switched to milking and the filter is replaced. Now the milking parlor is sprayed completely wet with a hose so that after milking, when the cows have brought in quite a bit of dirt, the milking parlor can be cleaned immediately. The milking clusters are to be removed from the holder and the milking frame is lowered.

Meanwhile, the cows are driven away from the feeding fence and towards the waiting area for milking. The gates are closed so that the cows cannot “run off” to eat again.

After everyone is in the waiting area, treats – concentrated feed – are placed at the feeding fences, which they find as a reward after milking. I think it is important and good for the cows to always follow the same sequence; the animals can then orient themselves more easily.

Here we go: the first batch – we can milk 7 cows at once. The entrance is opened and the first cows come in. Once there are 7 cows in the milking parlor, we close the gate so that the other cows no longer push their way in.

It is important that the cows feel comfortable in the milking parlor and like to go in. The first few months were not easy; it took a lot of patience and experience. Franz from the Maschinenring helped us a lot here so that the cows lose their fear of the new and gain trust.

So – now all 7 cows are in the milking parlor – the pre-milking begins. We strip a few streams from each teat and then

the milk flow is stimulated with the wood wool and the teats are cleaned at the same time. As soon as the milk has let down, the milking cluster is attached clockwise.

Once the cows were used to the situation, it was also possible for our guests to take part in the milking and our four-legged friends did not feel disturbed. When the cow is finished and the milk flow becomes low, the milking cluster comes off, the milk quantity is checked, the teats themselves and the udder are felt, and then they are dipped in a iodine solution for disinfection.

When all 7 cows are finished, the bar is lifted and the animals dash out to the feeding area. There, a treat awaits each one. The milking units are disinfected with acetic acid and another seven cows enter the milking parlor.

Once all the cows have been milked, it’s time to pump the milk into the tank and start cleaning. Everything is cleaned thoroughly: the manure gutter, the floor, and the side surfaces. If there are two of us, one of us goes to prepare the “beds” – cubicles for the cows. No one likes to lie in a mess, not even the cows. Our straw-lime cubicles are prepared with a fork and the manure left on the edge by the cows is scraped off.

Now that the milking parlor is cleaned, the beds are made, and the manure is taken out, the milk is in the right place at the right temperature – then the cows can be released from the feeding fence and move freely again – whether to drink water, to rest, to play, to lick the salt lick ….

These processes happen twice a day and 365 times a year. If a cow has calved, the milk must not be delivered to the dairy for the time being. This “beast milk” or colostrum is very high quality and the most important food for the newborn calf. These cows are marked with a band on their leg so that there is no confusion and the milk is not milked into the tank. Once the milk is free of inhibitors again (a sample must be sent to the dairy), the cow no longer needs to be milked separately.

Our cows all have a name and a collar with a transponder number. This way, they can be assigned to the system when they enter the milking parlor, and they also only get the amount of concentrated feed from the automatic feeder that we set for them.

Have you got a taste for the work in the stable? Next week I will tell you how our little calves are fed and with what joy our son Matthias tames and “trains” the little ones. Will you be there?

Best regards, Katharina Schwaiger from Zittrauerhof in Gastein.