A study of factors affecting the efficiency of milking operations.

End of Project ReportWith a mid-level milking system the milking time was reduced significantly when the teat end vacuum was increased • Vacuum losses were lower and milking time was shorter with simultaneous pulsation than with alternate pulsation • Milk yield was not affected by the magnitude of teat end vacuum. • Both the mean flowrate and peak flowrate increased when the teat end vacuum was increased. • New milking plants and conversions should have 16 mm bore long milk tubes (LMT) and 16 mm bore entries in the milk pipeline • The omission of udder washing as a pre-milking preparation procedure did not influence milking characteristics. • TBC and E. coli were significantly reduced with full pre-milking preparation compared to no pre-milking preparation when milk was produced from cows on pasture • Counts for individual bacterial species were well below maximum numbers permitted in EU Council Directive (Anon. 1992) when no pre-milking preparation was carried out