Improved management to limit milk production losses resulting from the transition to once-a-day milking in dairy sheep

There has been increasing interest in once-a-day milking (ODM) in recent years. Despite the loss in milk production due to the reduction in milking frequency, ODM has several advantages for farm management, particularly labour savings. It has already been demonstrated that adapting management can compensate for the reduction in milk production, especially on dairy cow farms based on extensive grazing systems. The objective of this study was therefore to investigate the impact of management adaptations associated with a switch to ODM in a diverse range of dairy ewe farms in the 'Rayon de Roquefort', France, at the farm level. For that purpose, a model was developed to evaluate the ability of three flock management adaptations to compensate for losses due to the transition to ODM: (i) increasing the flock size, (ii) increasing the milking period and (iii) increasing grazing in the ewes' diet. The model results show that depending on the farm, a transition to ODM on the first day of milking reduces the milk yield of the whole flock by 18-19% and causes an 8-16% decrease in household income. When the transition occurs around the turnout date, the impact on the performance of the flock is reduced, but so is the time spent on routine work. In the short term, it is possible to make adaptions to limit losses both in milk production and in household income by lengthening the milking period and/or by making better use of pasture. Conversely, increasing the number of milked ewes does not compensate for the loss of income. For each farm, a scenario was designed to provide a satisfactory trade-off between household income, milk delivery and routine workload. However, although the management adaptations are the same, their modalities of implementation depend on the farm concerned, which have different amounts of leeway. For the diverse range of farms tested, ODM represents a good compromise between flexible workload management and the performance of dairy sheep farms. ODM, during the whole or part of the milking period, is a useful farm management tool to manage both labour and grazing during strategic periods.