The effects of increased milking frequency during early lactation on milk yield and milk composition on commercial dairy farms

Increased milking frequency (IMF) during early lactation has the potential for carryover responses following the return to normal herd milking frequency. The objective was to determine the consistency of response of cows in commercial dairy farms to IMF during early lactation. Cows (n = 398) were assigned randomly at calving within each of the 4 participating farms to 1 of 2 treatments. The control group was milked twice-daily (2x) during the entire lactation. The IMF group was milked 4-times daily (4x) starting on d 1 to 7, depending on farm, until d 21 postcalving and 2x thereafter. Cows in the IMF group were milked at the beginning and again at the end of the normal milking routine. Milking intervals differed across the farms for the 4x cows with a minimum interval of 3.5, 4.0, 5.0, and 6 h for each of the 4 farms, respectively. The milk yield of cows subjected to IMF increased by 2.2 +/- 0.4 kg/d during the first 7 mo of lactation. Interactions of treatment with lactation group (primiparous vs. multiparous) were not significant. Although percentages of fat and protein in milk were decreased by early lactation IMF (3.69% +/- 0.03 fat and 3.05% +/- 0.02 true protein for control vs. 3.57% +/- 0.03 fat and 2.99% +/- 0.02 true protein for IMF), overall yields of protein were increased by IMF (1.02 +/- 0.01 vs. 0.98 +/- 0.01 kg/d). Early lactation IMF did not affect udder health as assessed by somatic cell count linear score. Cows subjected to IMF were 1.4 times more likely classified as subclinically ketotic than the control cows. Early lactation IMF has the potential to increase milk yield on commercial dairy farms. Although the direction of response was the same on all farms, the magnitude of the response was different among farms and appears influenced by management practices specific to each farm, which included, but were not limited to, housing system, stocking density, nutrition, genetics, and other covariates differing among farms.