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Now is the time to get milking machines serviced and ready for action. All liners should be changed before the start of the season and changed again during the year at around 2,000 milkings.
Worn liners will increase milking times and can lead to teat end damage – a likely cause of mastitis on many farms.
Speaking at the once-a-day milking conference last week, Teagasc mastitis expert Don Crowley said that the delay time between vacuum shut off and the automatic cluster remover (ACR) being activated is very important.
The delay in some parlours is only one to two seconds, meaning there is still vacuum at the clusters when the rope is pulling them off.
Don says the delay should be 3.5 seconds. This can be adjusted by changing the settings in the ACR.
The clusters should be almost falling off by themselves before the rope activates.
At the Positive Farmers Conference last week, Australian farmer Chris Proctor said culling slow milkers makes a big difference to milking times and overall hours worked in the year. Cows are milked for a maximum of eight minutes on his 60-bail rotary.
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