ACE Expo '99

There are five objectives in milking cows at Jones Family Farm.

1. Milk clean dry cows to ensure quality milk with minimal losses

2. Milk calm cows

3. Milk cows quickly

4. Milk cows completely

5. Milk cows consistently

There are two things that affect all of our objectives in milking, the people milking the cows and the equipment. With a computer automated milking systems we have made improvements in both of these areas.

We have used the information collected to monitor our personnel and made changes to our routines that have improved the milking process. By monitoring milking machine on times and flow rates a routine that optimizes milk flow has been established which decreases machine on time. With a good routine established we were able to increase the milking vacuum, decrease the delay time to detach and increase the detach flow rate. With current settings detacher settings of 1.6 lbs per minute with a 1 second delay machine on time has been decrease about 1 minute per milking for a total of three minutes per cow per day. Reduced machine on time means less chance for infection, improved teat end health, calmer cows, and less time milking. A small percentage of cows need to have special rates set to ensure complete milk out, this is easily accomplished through the computer.

Maximum machine on times have also been set to 10 minutes per milking. Cows can be trained to milk faster.

Equipment is also monitored daily to ensure that it is operating properly. Machines that operate outside of one standard deviation for flow rate, machine on time, conductivity, number of cows milked, fall offs, or peak flow rate are listed at the end of each milking. These machines are then checked for problems such as a bad inflation, improperly functioning pulsator, or a faulty or dirty milk meter.

Our general goal is simply to take care of every cow every day. By having current information and the capability to separate cows based on that information we come closer to achieving this goal. Computer sort gates are set to automatically sort cows based on a deviation of negative 35 percent. The cows that are sorted then can receive the proper attention.

We have plans to continue pushing our cows and equipment closer to optimum performance based on our five objectives of milking. Flow rates continue to be raised and monitored, and maximum machine on time will be going down. With a combination of good people and equipment the cows will do the rest.