6.30 a.m.
Most cows head to the robot themselves; others need persuasion. But generally, it’s something they enjoy — both because the robot gives them a tasty treat and because their brains produce oxytocin during milking. It’s the same feel-good hormone that helps bond human mothers to their babies while breastfeeding.
Our cows wear collars that have a transponder on them. Each transponder has a serial number that’s been saved to the milking robot’s user program and, with that, we can manage how often each cow can be milked. Six hours is the recommended minimum time between milkings, to give their udders a break, but some will keep approaching the robot to see whether it’s time yet.
At 6.30 a.m., I go over to the special calving pens to inspect and feed by hand our new mothers and any sick or injured cows that might be on a separate diet from the rest of the herd. We also feed the calves by hand, first thing in the morning — at least three litres of milk per calf.
Calves are separated a day after birth, so that we can manage their feeding. They stay for the first week of their lives in individual pens before they’re moved to a larger group pen, because we want to make sure that the umbilical cords are all dried up and no longer an entry point for pathogens.