Shorter milking times to reduce mastitis

Cups on cows for shorter times, higher yields, better teats and less mastitis. All for virtually no cost – provided you have a willing partner. How could this be?

A few months ago I needed some video vision on milking techniques for a Countdown training course. I took a camera and visited a couple of farms and just stood and watched milking with the tape rolling.

Afterwards some of the staff and I started looking through the tapes and to our amazement, we were still there talking about “cups-on” about two hours later.  With the video we could all really examine the routine that was happening for cows in much more detail than during the actual time of milking. 

What we saw was a series of cows with what the milking staff called “double letdown”. Cups went on and a rush of milk hit the bowl, but then it stopped.  The bowl was virtually dry for between 40 and 80 seconds before milk started flowing again. A lot of our discussion over the video was about the detrimental effects of this “no-flow” time, why it occurs and how to fix it.

Caption: An empty claw bowl at the start of milking suggests the cups are going on before the cow is ready.

What we were seeing is very common and it isn’t double letdown at all. It is actually failure of letdown before the cups are put on – the first splashes we saw were the milk that was sitting inside the teat and drainage part of the udder, but no real letdown had occurred at that stage.

Most of the milk in the udder is held in tiny tubes in the secretory part of the gland. It requires a positive squeeze of the muscle cells around the tubes to push the milk down into the transporting ducts, and only then can it be removed by hand or machine milking. This squeeze is created by the action of the letdown hormone (oxytocin). The cow can’t consciously stop letdown, but the hormone is only produced efficiently when she is relaxed, so calm cows are the “willing partners” that you need to get the fastest milk-out possible.

But who cares whether there’s a one minute wait before real letdown ? The cows we were filming were going to be on the platform for 10 minutes anyway. Cows care – it damages their teats. 

Teat health and mastitis resistance is better when cups are on cows for shorter periods and when there is strong milk flow.

Have a good look at your own herd. Looking – actually, really focussing - on cows, clusters, operators, milk flow and teats provides so much information about the process of milk harvesting that is critical to successful dairying.

Check next milking to see if milk flow “stalls” soon after cups-on. If so, you have cows that have not yet letdown. Are there ways you can encourage that willing partnership to better milk production? 

A good part of the answer on the farm we were filming was to change the use of the yard and the backing gate to reduce milling and distraction of cows. A small routine change made a great difference. They are now milking cows out so fast they can make the best use of their Automatic Cup Removers and teat condition has improved dramatically.

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Box 1    What milking times should you aim for? 

With good milk let-down (teats plump with milk) and correctly adjusted milking equipment, 95% of cows giving:

10 litre/milking should milk out in 5 minutes (+/- 1 minute)

15 litre/milking should milk out in 6 minutes (+/- 1 minute)

20 litre/milking should milk out in 7 minutes (+/- 1 minute)

If your times are higher than these then good let-down had not occurred before the cups went on. 

Inside page

Are you looking after your cows’ teats?

[Image = Graeme Mein looking at milking]

 As a guide, in your herd:

• Does milk flow “stall” within the first half-minute?

• Do cups crawl up the teats?

• Are cows kicking, stepping or “assisting cup removal” during milking?

• Do teats look discoloured (reddish, bluish or purplish), or look or feel swollen or hard when cups are removed? Are there cracks or sores on the teats? 

Without good milk let-down before the cups go on the teats are empty and flaccid and the cups are easily able to “crawl” up the teats. As the teatcup mouthpiece climbs higher, the connection between the teat and the udder is more easily blocked. This restricts milk flow towards the end of milking, so the last part is a “dribble flow” instead of a clean stop. The poor old teats have a longer “low-flow” period at the end, as well as a “no-flow” time to start.

Managing milking to achieve good let-down before cups-on gives great benefits – including shorter milking times, higher yields, better teats and less mastitis.

Field work in North America has shown how this can be done with firm but gentle handling of teats. Because this may be impractical on most of our farms, the new National Milk Harvesting Centre has applied for funding for a trial at Ellinbank to explore practical ways for Aussie farmers to achieve the same outcomes. If this work goes ahead it will be great to see their results.

Box: What condition are your cow’s teats in?  

[Image = Teat end]

Evaluating teat condition can be difficult without a reference point so Countdown has worked with Dr Bill Morgan and Professor Graeme Mein to develop a new scoring system for assessing teat damage.

Ask your vet or milking machine technician for a teat assessment. The system is described in the Countdown Downunder Technotes. Teat damage can be the clearest indication of something wrong. It might indicate for example a problem with milking machine function or a need to review milking procedures.   

Dick Buesnel is Countdown’s regional coordinator for NSW

He has been a dairy livestock officer in the Bega area for 25 years and is married to a local dairy farmer’s daughter.

Dick initially trained at Hawkesbury Agricultural College and returned in 1975 to complete a Graduate Diploma in Agricultural Extension.

Amongst his responsibilities he has taken on the role of convener of the NSW Milking Management Group that runs the NSW annual cell count awards.

Dick breeds Holsteins as a hobby and assists in the operation of the family’s herd of 250 milkers.

As deregulation starts to have an impact on farm profitability in the coming year, Dick is concerned that farmers might cut costs in ways that will cause problems in future years. He sees maintenance of quality standards as critical to long-term viability – including changing liners regularly, keeping up with teat dips, and planned use of Dry Cow Treatment.

Dick has arranged for Countdown resources to be made available to all NSW dairy farmers through the DairyCHECK program and is currently organising a Countdown Adviser Short Course at Tocal in November.