The importance of having an effective milking routine on dairy farms cannot be underestimated; it is of the few jobs that can take place up to 365 days/year.
Dairy farmers are in the food-producing business and the milking routine plays a key role in ensuring that this food is of the highest quality possible.
As the new milk-production season ramps up on farms, it is important to start as you mean to go on and get your milking routine right from the beginning.
Milking routine
It is important that the person milking wears a pair of clean gloves and a clean apron.
Wearing gloves greatly reduces the potential of the milker spreading potentially mastitis-causing bacteria from one cow to another.
It is also important that the parlour is kept clean during milking. In between rows, any dung should be removed, before the next row enters.
The milking process and environment should be stress-free. There will be times when this doesn’t happen but for the most part that should be the aim.
Many farms have the radio or music playing, which appears to help keep both the cows and milker a little bit calmer.
It is important that clusters are attached to clean and dry udders; clusters should not be attached to dirty udders.
If more than 5% of the herd is presenting with dirty udders there may be an issue that needs to be investigated.
Dirty udders should be washed and dried thoroughly before clusters are attached. Roadways, yards and cubicles should be kept clean. Dirty udders are most likely an issue inside the cubicle shed.
The monitoring of teat health is also important; it is important that cows aren’t over- or under-milked.
Many farms now have automatic cluster removers (ACRs), but many do not – so it is important to ensure that cows aren’t over or under milked.
It is also important to check ACRS as they may need to be altered.
Cows that are over-milked can have issues with teat damage, while under-milking can increase the cow’s susceptibility of mastitis.
The post-milking application of a disinfectant is also important to offer cows protection during the high-risk period shortly after milking.
Mastitis control
Keeping cell counts and mastitis under control is a key part of any milking routine.
A useful piece of kit to have in the milking parlour is a California Mastitis Test (CMT) kit. This gives you real-time information of cell counts of cows.
It is useful as it can be used quickly during milking and identify quarters that have high somatic cell counts (SCC).