Wait a minute? Take this literally. A 60-90 second break after a cow has been stimulated to letdown milk gives time for her milk ejection hormone to reach the udder.

Often, the most effective stimulus occurs when milkers first touch the teats and udder. This could include a brief rub-down of teats to remove loose dirt, palpation of the udder for heat or hardness, or foremilk stripping. Other stimuli may be the sights and sounds of the milking area and the predictability of a calm, consistent milking routine.

If you rely on the cups themselves to supply the stimulus it is already too late.

The typical pattern of milk flow if cups are attached BEFORE full milk ejection occurs is a small initial milk flow that lasts about 15-20 seconds, an empty claw bowl for the next minute, and a slow ‘dribble’ toward the end of milking.

The dribble at the end of milking happens when teatcups on one or more teats have crawled up to the top of the teats and partially choked the pathway between the udder and the teat.

Milking will be efficient if good letdown is achieved. As a guide, the expected milking time for cows giving:

• 10 L per milking should milk in 5 minutes (± 1 minute)

• 15 L per milking should milk in 6 minutes (± 1 minute)

• 20L per milking should milk in 7 minutes (± 1 minute).

These figures are from the Countdown Downunder Farm Guidelines and assume the teats are plump with milk before cups are attached and that the milking equipment is correctly adjusted.

The benefits of achieving good letdown are higher milk yields, shorter milking time per cow, better teat health, and less risk of mastitis.

The extra time spent on cow preparation certainly pays!

Image and caption

2aug05 “Efficient milking requires good let-down”

Countdown Downunder Farm Guideline/Technote
Farm Guideline 5.4 and 6

Keywords
Teatcup crawl, letdown

Word length
303