By Vet Victor Oudhuis
The main goal of any milking machine is to milk cows “Quickly, Gently and Complete”.
The shorter the milking units are on, and the less damage they do the better, as long as milking is complete.
By law all milk parlours need to have a static test carried out at least once a year (preferably every 500-1000 hrs). This is the equivalent of a vehicle MOT. It will pick up mechanical faults in the system and perishable parts will be replaced.
Another type of assessment called a “dynamic” test or Milking Time Test (MTT) can be undertaken during milking. It assesses how the machine is performing and interacting with the cows. It measures vacuum and vacuum changes under milking conditions in the milk liners. Using the car analogy it measures vacuum levels “where the rubber meets the udder”.
By doing this we can determine in what way the parlour might be affecting mastitis levels on your farm, if it is causing discomfort to the cows or most importantly whether milking is performed efficiently or not.
In other words, the static milking machine test tells you whether the
machine is safe to milk cows. The dynamic milking machine test tells you how comfortable and efficient it is at milking them.
Milking Time Testing can be done using Vadia recorders which are attached to the milk cluster causing no interruption to the normal milking.
As well as the actual Milking Time Test several other important interactions in the parlour can be recorded during the test, including teat end scoring, hygiene scoring, assessment of pre and post dipping/spraying, cluster alignment and the workflow of the milking routine.
There are several key areas a Milking Time Test can evaluate that a static test cannot measure:
Pre milking teat preparation: poor udder stimulation and delayed milk let down are highlighted by vacuum readings from different points in the liner. Delayed milk let down causes bimodal milk flow, which means that after the initial milk from the milk cistern has been milk out, milk flow stops and only resumes as milk from higher up in the udder comes down. This is very uncomfortable for the cows, slows down milking and can reduce milk yields by 1-2 liters per cow per milking.
Over milking: commonly a cause of teat congestion and/or teat end damage and often caused by incorrect ACR take off settings. Many parlour ACR settings are way too low for modern dairy cows. During overmilking vacuum levels in the liner mouthpiece shoot up, causing a lot of discomfort to the cow and resulting in redness and/or oedema of the teats. In some cases, milking can become so uncomfortable cows can kick off the units. Overmilking can substantially increase milking times. Reducing milking by only 15 min each milking can save you over 180 hrs a year (18 working days)!
Liner slippage and liner fit: picked up on read outs from the testing equipment and can point to cluster alignment, vacuum or liner design issues.
The vacuum applied at the level of the teat end: assesses if operating vacuum is set too high/low.
ACR settings: can assess whether the ACR is functioning right (correct delay time, etc).
After the visit a report will be compiled, in which practical suggestions will be made to help reduce the risk of mastitis from the parlour and how to make milking more efficient and comfortable for the cows.
Milking time tests are offered by vets (including Paragon) and independent consultants, so if you are interested in optimizing your milking process, give it a thought.