Dairy Cows’ Temperament and Milking Performance during the Adaptation to an Automatic Milking System

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Dairy cows undergo an adaptative period during changes to a new milking system, such as automatic milking. During this period, cows could experience stress, affecting their health and productive performance. How cows cope with this period would depend on their individual characteristics, such as their temperament. In the present study, the relationships between temperament (measured by different handling yard tests), productive traits, and milking behaviours were evaluated. Cows classified as calm by the flight speed test exhibited more kicks and produced less milk during their first milkings with the automatic milking system than cows classified as reactive. Therefore, when the temperament was classified based on the flight speed test, calm animals presented greater difficulty in adapting to an automatic milking system than reactive ones. Understanding how cows adapt to new milking systems allows for the development of management strategies designed to improve animal welfare and the productive efficiency of the herds. ABSTRACT: Adaptative responses of cows to an automatic milking system (AMS) could depend on their temperament, i.e., cows with certain temperament profiles could be able to cope more successfully with the AMS. The relationships between dairy cows’ temperament, behaviour, and productive parameters during the changeover from a conventional milking system (CMS) to an AMS were investigated. Thirty-three multiparous cows were classified as ‘calm’ or ‘reactive’ based on each of the temperament tests conducted: race time, flight speed (FS), and flight distance, at 5, 25, and 45 days in milk at CMS, then the cows were moved from the CMS to the AMS. During the first five milkings in AMS, the number of steps and kicks during each milking were recorded. The daily milk yield was automatically recorded. The number of steps did not vary by temperament classification, but the number of kicks per milking was greater for calm (0.45 ± 0.14) than for reactive cows (0.05 ± 0.03) when they were classified by FS (p < 0.01). During the first seven days in the AMS, reactive cows for the FS test produced more milk than calm cows (36.5 ± 1.8 vs. 33.2 ± 1.6 L/day; p = 0.05). In conclusion, behavioural and productive parameters were influenced by cows´ temperament during the milking system changeover since the calm cows kicked more and produced less than the reactive ones.