One versus two milkings in low-input dairy production systems

Joaquín Ventura García & Fernando Diaz

After nutrition, labor is the second item in the production costs of a dairy operation. Therefore, it is very important to optimize the work force of a dairy farm in order to improve profitability. Furthermore, milking consumes most of the time in the workers schedule. For this reason, some dairies follow a once-a-day milking strategy in order to improve their employees working conditions, reduce labor cost, expand the pool of available labor or better use their labor resource.