In our experiment we obtained an ov

In our experiment we obtained an overall reduction
in milk yield lower than 4% when omitting one milking
weekly in cows yielding around 30 L/d. Previous studies,
however, demonstrated a reduction in milk yield
varying from as little as 3% to as much as 10% as a
result of omitting one milking weekly in comparison
with twice daily milking (Radcliffe et al., 1973; Labussie`re
and Coindet; 1968). Recent studies on the short
term effects of omitting one milking weekly to reduce
labor requirements on dairy farms, suggest that milk
yield was not affected in late lactation (Sheehy, 2001;
O’Brien et al., 2002).
Moreover a reduction of 8 to 26% in milk yield in
dairy ewes (Casu and Labussie`re, 1972; Labussie`re et
al., 1974; Huidobro, 1988) and a reduction of 3 to 5%
in milk yield in dairy goats (Mocquot, 1978; Le Mens,
1978; Le Du, 1989) by omitting one milking weekly
has also been reported. This can be related to their
respective cistern size. Pattern of milk yield change
during the days of the week shown in our work agrees
with the results obtained by Labussie`re and Coindet
(1968) and Charron (1986) in which milk yield decreased
during the day of the suppression and increased
dramatically 24-h after. Nevertheless, milk yield values
reached the average level 72-h after omitting the milking.
In our experiments we observed that the loss of
milk yield produced by omitting one milking weekly
was not affected by milk yield (Experiment 1) or by the
lactation wk of the cows (Experiment 2) although in
both cases the cows were in late lactation (201 to 236