Director of dairy farming at the Meiereihof research station, University of Hohenheim

According to the guidelines of the auctions and shows, the cows must be milked the evening before. This happens to a large extent in the sheds of the auction halls. 

There are no reliable findings on this, but it can be assumed that, at the beginning of lactation, when they are producing a lot of milk, cows experience pain after about 20 hours without milking. In late lactation before drying off, three milkings (48 hours) can be skipped without problems. The pressure in the udder stops milk production. 

Nonetheless, suspending the morning milking before the auction/show is very questionable and unnecessary in principle: The expert also recognizes good udder quality without this step.

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