Effects of Automatic Cluster Remover Settings on Average Milking Duration, Milk Flow, and Milk Yield

Abstract

A crossover study design was used in five commercial dairy herds to study the effect of altering the switch point settings for automatic cluster remover units on the average duration of unit attachment, milk flow, and milk yield. Automatic cluster remover switch point settings were alternated, for 1-wk periods, between 0.50 and 0.64 kg/min (1.1 and 1.4 lb/min) in one herd and between 0.73 and 0.82 kg/min (1.6 and 1.8 lb/min) in the four remaining herds. Parlor data were captured at 329 separate milking sessions (range 39 to 92 per herd), representing 239,393 individual cow milkings. While increasing the automatic cluster remover switch point setting was not associated with a change in average milking duration in one herd, it had the effect of significantly reducing the average milking duration by between 10.2 and 15.6 s per cow in the remaining four herds. Milk flow was significantly increased at higher switch point settings for all five herds. Higher automatic cluster remover switch point settings did not have a negative effect on milk yield in any of the herds studied and, in fact, were associated with increased milk yield in two of the five herds. Decreasing milking duration while either maintaining or increasing the volume of milk harvested should ultimately lead to improved milking efficiency and parlor performance. Modifying systems to increase automatic cluster remover switch point settings offers an important potential opportunity to increase parlor efficiency in commercial dairy herds.

Effect of automatic cluster removers on milking efficiency and teat condition of Manchega ewes

“…The results of milking duration in T15020 and T20010 agree with those found in similar studies carried out in dairy cows (Sagi, 1978;Stewart et al, 2002;Jago et al, 2010). The use of the AVCD set with T15020 would be more efficient than the conventional milking with manual cluster removal, as it obtained a similar amount of extracted milk but took less time.…”

Effect of automatic cluster removers (ACRs) on the milking of Murciano-Granadina goats during lactation

“…The higher probability in the case of T150 that these animals were distributed in different rows caused the increase in the duration of the milking of a row. This situation was described by Stewart et al (2002) who pointed out that the duration of the milking of a row depends on the milking duration of the slowest animals. The absence of significant effects of the treatment on the milk composition agrees with the results observed in dairy cows (Jago et al, 2010).…”

“…The effect of ACRs in the milking of dairy cows has been widely studied (Sagi, 1978;Stewart et al, 2002;Jago et al, 2010) testing different settings of this type of devices (milk flow threshold, MF and delay time, DT) and assessing that a suitable setting of them allows reducing milking time employed without losses of milk yield.…”

Effect of setting a maximum milking time, from peak lactation, on production, milking time and udder health

“…0.2 kg/minute, which is commonly used as a baseline setting in experimental studies (Clarke et al 2004), the difference in mean milking time between the two treatments would likely have been greater. This is based on evidence from other studies that have demonstrated signifi cant reductions in milking time when ACR threshold settings were raised (Rasmussen 1993;Stewart et al 2002). However, there is evidence to suggest that the average duration of milking may not decrease in response to an increase in ACR threshold setting when cows are milked under typical conditions for New Zealand.…”

“…Studies by Rasmussen (1993) and more recently Stewart et al (2002) demonstrated that by raising the threshold setting of the ACR, milking time could be substantially reduced without affecting yield or the incidence and prevalence of subclinical mastitis. Researchers in Australia reported that assigning a maximum milking time resulted in a 34% reduction in the maximum (5), [246][247][248][249][250][251][252]2010 milking time of the slower-milking cows without signifi cant loss of milk yield (Clarke et al 2004).…”