Pasture based milking

Pasture based milking is neither a history nor a fantasy. In fact, on-pasture milking is what any cow would dream of.

Milking directly on the pasture is best for the cows who are ruminants and free-roaming animals and thus feel most comfortable right at their natural “home”. And, anything that’s good for milking cows is also best for the dairy farmer!

When grazing on a pasture, a cow feels “at home”, doesn’t feel any stress related to seeing no food directly before and after milking (if milked in a stationary milking parlor) and, most importantly doesn’t lose any energy and milk to walk back and forth just for milking.

Researcher found that cows naturally lose about 200 grams of milk per each kilometer of walking just in the direct body energy loses. And, a cow’s udder is loose, she might lose much more milk while on her walk to the milking parlor.

For a herd of 100 cows, a walking exercise might cost up to 10 tons of milk per month! Not a very smart way to do dairy farming if cows have to walk long distances at the cost of their milk.

Pasture based milk production has proven to be most cost-efficient. The global experience and common sense prove that there would be nothing more efficient than milking cows directly in the fields.

For many decades, pasture based milking was a technically sophisticated task to realize.

So, how do we make paster based milking  comfortable for the cows, convenient for the farmer and still guarantee the highest quality of milk?