Influence of individual-quarter milking on somatic-cell content and the milkability of first-time lactating cows
2011
Müller, A. B. | Rose-Meierhöfer, S. | Brunsch, R., Leibniz-Institut fuer Agrartechnik Bornim, Potsdam (Germany)
Milking technology significantly influences udder health and the milkability of cows. Individual-quarter milking systems with a single hose guide without clawpiece and with a low vacuum (37 kPa), such as the MultiLactor®, are meant to be gentle on the udder tissue and to ensure even, thorough milking.[...]Milk-flow curves and somatic cell-count scores were used to assess individual-quarter milking in first-time lactating cows. The milk-flow curves were recorded every 14 days with LactoCordern® (WMB, Balgach, Switzerland). In addition, at the time of each measurement, a sample of the total milking was taken and examined with the Fossomatic® (FOSS, Hillerød, Denmark) for its somatic-cell content. For cows in their first lactation, the milking system would seem to have no influence on the important milking parameters such as milk yield, duration of milking, and average milk flow. Observed over the trial period, the somatic-cell content for first-time lactating cows stood at under 100,000 cells/ml milk on average. Cows in the two groups studied are therefore to be classified as healthy.
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