The liner is the only part of the milking machine that comes in direct contact with the cow. A cow spends on average 60 hours of every lactation in contact with this liner.
- Do you worry that the recommendation to change your milking machine liners has been developed just to sell more liners?
- Do you think that liners which are ‘’a bit worn’’ won’t make much of a difference?
- Well rest assured that changing your liners will increase your milk yield and udder health!
As liners operate over time they lose tension, absorb fat and hold bacteria. This deterioration is sufficient to reduce the speed and completeness of milking, resulting in a loss in milk yield. This also increases teat end damage and increase the spread of mastitis bacteria. To reduce the impact of aged liners on milk yield and udder health, the industry recommendation is to change liners after 2,000 milkings or 6 months, whichever comes first.
More information is available on www.cellcheck.ie
Number of days =
2,000 X number of milking units
Herd size X number of milkings per day
Example: A herd of 79 cows milking twice per day [number of milkings per day] in a 10-unit swing-over parlour [number of milking units] would take approximately 120 days to do 2,000 cow milkings
Number of days =
2,000 X 10 = 126 days.
79 X 2
If the full herd was milking by March 1, with new liners in spring, by August 1, they will have done at least 154 days milking. But they should have been changed after 126 days i.e. after July 4. So don’t wait any longer, change them now!
