Overview
The milk block list answers one question before every milking: which animals have to be milked separately today? It lives under Health → Milk block list and shows the next four milkings per animal (today morning and evening, tomorrow morning and evening) as red or green cells.
The list is computed from the treatment journal: every active treatment and every vaccination with a milk withdrawal period or a milk ban produces a block. You do not record anything twice; the list is another view of the same entries. The general rules for withdrawal periods are described under Withdrawal periods.
The rule
- Release in the morning of the release date. If the milk release date is 26 September, the first free milking is the morning of 26 September.
- Last blocked milking the evening before. On 25 September in the evening the milk does not yet belong in the tank.
- Both milkings of a day are the same. The day is the unit; Herdy never blocks only the morning milk.
- Milk ban without a date. If a product is not permitted for dairy animals, the list shows "no release date". The animal stays blocked until the entry is voided or re-assigned.
- Dry cow products. A dry cow product blocks the milk until after calving, without a date ("Dry cow product X: until after calving"). With the calving date the withdrawal runs from calving ("calved on"); if the dry period was too short, the row adds "inhibitor test before delivery". Fresh animals appear during the first eight days as their own row "Fresh since" (colostrum, VHyMP Art. 10). The rules are described under withdrawal periods.
- Several treatments. An animal appears once. A ban wins, otherwise the latest release date; further running treatments are counted ("+1 further treatment").
An animal whose block ends tonight is shown on an amber band with the note "Last blocked milking: tonight. From tomorrow morning into the tank." Animals free again since this morning appear in their own section so you can cross them off the sheet in the parlour.
Which animals the list shows
Only female, food-producing sheep, goats and cattle with status "active". Animals you explicitly marked as "not a dairy animal" do not appear, even with a running period. Animals without a value do appear: the list hides nothing just because a box was left unticked. Animals on the alp are not listed but counted in the footer.
Marking dairy animals
The "dairy animal" mark controls whether the milk block list appears in the menu and hides suckler cows or fattening animals from the list:
- Individually: In the animal form (create or edit), below the sex, female animals of the dairy species get the field Milk production with the values "unknown", "Yes" and "No".
- Several at once: Select the animals in the animal list and use the action Mark as dairy animal or Remove mark. Male animals and other species are skipped; the feedback states the number.
As long as no animal is marked, the page remains reachable from the health overview as soon as an animal is blocked, and its empty state shows a hint with a link to the animal list.
Today and tomorrow
The Today / Tomorrow toggle switches the reference day. The "Tomorrow" view shows which animals are still blocked tomorrow so you can plan the evening. The four milking cells stay the same in both views; only the selection of rows changes.
The column of the current milking is emphasised: the morning before noon, the evening afterwards.
Printing for the parlour board
The Print button produces an A4 sheet: farm name, date, time of printing, large ear tags, all four milkings in colour and with the word "blocked" or "free" so a black-and-white printer is enough. The footer reminds you to print again after every new treatment. With ?print=1 in the address you see the print header on screen as well.
Checking an inhibitor result
When dbmilch reports a positive inhibitor result, bulk milk testing calculates the same block list for the sample day and adds the animals whose block ended shortly before as well as every treatment of the last 14 days.
Feeding on the farm
Milk within the withdrawal period may be fed to calves, lambs or kids on your own farm. The period then applies to the animal that was fed and belongs in its treatment journal (FSVO, TAMV implementation guide 2023, chapter 10.3). The block list shows this note in its footer; you keep the journal of the fed animal by hand.
A warning, not a lock. Herdy does not stop anyone from milking an animal or delivering milk. The list is a working tool and as current as the treatment journal. Responsibility for the delivery remains with you.