Training in-calf heifers to be familiar with the milking parlour before their first lactation is yielding benefits for two Welsh dairy farms.

Calving at Moor Farm, near Holywell, gets underway from March 15th but acclimatising heifers to the 10/20 herringbone parlour begins as early as October, at housing.

Rhys Davies, who produces milk from the 100-cow Ffrwd pedigree Holstein Friesian herd with his parents, Dei and Heulwen, says it helps to acclimatise the young animals to the different environment and noises in the building.

He runs a group of around 40 through after the cows have been milked.

Everything from the radio to the compressor are switched off to create a peaceful and calm environment, but those noises are gradually reintroduced.

“We might turn the radio on, then, at the next session, switch on the parlour and later try shutting the automatic gates so they are standing in a row, and pull the cord for the cake,’’ says Rhys.

To make the process easier, a couple of older, barren cows are turned through with the heifers, to lead the way.

“The biggest problem with heifers is getting that first one through but if there is a cow among them that knows what to do the heifers tend to follow,’’ says Rhys.

The footbath is emptied and refilled with fresh solution before the heifers are walked through it and this has proved particularly useful this year because some had acquired a hoof infection while at grass.

“We started the training earlier than usual because of this,’’ Rhys explains.

The heifers don’t go into the parlour for their first milking – there is a separate milking machine in the calving shed which allows calves to stay with their mothers to ensure they get sufficient colostrum on that first day.

Time invested in parlour training is time well spent, Rhys reckons. “You start off the calving season on the front foot.’’

At Tyreglwys Farm, near Llanelli, training heifers doesn’t start as early – Geraint Thomas gets them used to the milking routine a week before their due calving date, by turning them in with the low yielding group.

“There is less pressure on them (the lows) than there would be with the highs because those cows are getting very little feed at that point, some none at all, so we don’t see any bullying of the heifers because they are not fighting to get in to feed,’’ explains Geraint, who produces milk from the pedigree Gwynnog herd.

In the week before calving each heifer comes in twice a day with the milking cows. If any are reluctant they are not forced in but the encouragement continues with each subsequent milking.

It helps that the herd is fed in the parlour with heifers receiving 4kg initially, rising to 8kg immediately before calving.

“When they know that there is food ahead of them that seems to do the trick,’’ says Geraint.

He makes no adjustments to the usual routine, keeping noises like the radio on to help with the familiarisation process.

“I am a big fan of having the radio on in the parlour because if anyone else comes into the parlour with a different voice the cows don’t flinch, they are already used to hearing lots of different voices on the radio.’’

There is no contact with udders until heifers are ready to be milked but he rarely needs to use a kickbar when the clusters go on.

“I don’t like to use a kickbar on the fresh heifers because it makes them more nervous, I might just need to clamp a tail occasionally.

“It must be a weird sensation when we put the clusters on for the first time so the less extra stress we put them under the better.’’

The effort put into training always pays off. “We never get any trouble at all,’’ he says.