The invention relates to a method of automatically milking dairy animals, such as dairy animals which are able to move freely in an area intended for this purpose and which can individually visit an automatic milking system, wherein a dairy animal is milked during a visit to the milking system if a dairy animal-dependent milking criterion is met. The invention is characterized in that the milking criterion comprises an individual correction factor, which correction factor is dependent on a spread of the duration between two successive visits of the dairy animal in question to the milking system.