Hur en övergång till ett automatiskt mjölkningssystem påverkar juverhälsan

Abstract: Automatic milking systems (AMS) have been in commercial use since 1992 and have since 1998 increased a lot. The objective of this study has been to examine the development of udder health on farms converting to AMS. The study also included a comparison of how udder health developed depending on how farms handled cows with mastitis. This was because farms choose to either milk cows with mastitis in a separate barn or in the milking robot. Other studies on udder health on commercial farms have shown that somatic cell count increases both among individual cows and in the bulk milk when converting to an AMS. No differences between before and after converting to AMS in the proportion of cows treated for mastitis can be found in the literature. It has been found that teat condition improves after an introduction of AMS but the risk for milk leakage is higher in an AMS. Ten farms with AMS in southern Sweden were used in this study. One part of this study was carried out using a questionnaire to examine factors connected to udder health on the farms. In another part of this study, the development of ratios for udder health after introduction of an AMS was examined. All ten farms were included in the questionnaire study, seven of the farms in the study of the development of ratios and six of the farms in the comparison of development of ratios in farms milking cows with mastitis in the robot or in a separate barn. A significant increase of cows in somatic cell count group 6-9 could be shown. The increase was in average 8.3 per cent units. No difference in the proportion of cases of treated mastitis between before and after the introduction of AMS could be shown. No differences could be shown in the ratios for udder health developed after an introduction of AMS between milking cows with mastitis in a separate barn and milking cows with mastitis in the milking robot. The decline of udder health after an introduction of a new milking system can be explained by it can take time to develop experience for the farmer to optimize the news management.