While cows are dry for the spring calving herd, farmers should be servicing the milking machine and bulk tank before the busy calving season.

The milking machine is the single most important machine on any dairy farm, and despite it being the only machine that comes in direct contact with your cows consistently, it is often neglected by many.

Think of the parlour as you would your car or tractor, most farmers will get their tractor serviced after 500 hours or their car serviced after 10,000km of driving.

The same goes for the milking machine, aiming to service twice a year, with the dry period being an ideal time to do one of them.

Cows spend an average of 50-100 hours each lactation attached to the cluster, so without proper maintenance, issues such as mastitis can occur through the following;

Acting as a bacterial carrier via the liners;
Damaging teats and teat ends and reducing the natural defense mechanisms of the teat canal;
Causing impacts of bacterial-laden droplets of milk into the teat canal.

The most common reason for milking machine problems is inadequate routine maintenance of mechanical components and rubber ware.

Milking machine

When servicing the milking machine, the following parts shouldnbe checked;

The following parts of the machine should be checked:

The vacuum – should be a maximum of 48 kilopascal (kPa);
The liners, which should be changed every 2,000 milkings;
The short pulse tubes and long milk tubes for cracks and wear and tear;
The claw bowl seals and shut-off valve seals – and replace as necessary;
The claw bowls for cracks or chips.

When servicing the machine, it is never any harm to order extra parts to have on standby in case of an emergency, these parts may claw bowls, pulsation tubes, milk line tubes, automatic cluster remover (ACRs) cord or line, liners and vacuum pump oil and belts.

As well as this, farmers need to inspect all the piping and rubber tubes in the milking machine/parlour.

You should regularly check the inside of the liners as they should be soft and smooth without any cracks or roughness.

Liners are the only part of the milking parlour in direct contact with the cow, if they are worn, they will reduce milking performance, damage the teat and will give rise to the risk of mastitis and cross-contamination.

After a while, liners will lose their tension which means they will absorb fat, hold bacteria, and deteriorate due to the cleaning products going through them twice-a-day.

Liners should be replaced every 2,000 milkings or every six months, whichever comes first and for herds that have expanded in recent years and still using the same parlour, the frequency of liner changes needs to increase.

Bulk tank

Servicing the bulk tank should also be done while you are doing the parlour to stay ahead of any problems before the milking season.

Chemical pipes and detergent pump tubes should be replaced, and farmers should be checking the dosing calibration.

Any flexible pipes on the tank or rubber pipes/hoses or seals on the the tank outlet should be examined and replaced.

Where there is a permanent fixed bottom fill system on the tank, they should be dismantled for examination and cleaning.

The wash pump should be check and serviced, water filters checked and cleaned and the condensing unit serviced.

A hot caustic wash should be done directly after service is completed and a calibration of detergents carried out.