Little changes for big gains in efficiency
When you’re milking hundreds of cows, every second counts and even the smallest change in work routine can make a big difference.
That was the message from milk quality consultant Josh Wheeler to farmers at DairyNZ’s Milksmart workshop in South Taranaki on Wednesday.
About 50 people attended the workshop, relocated to the Normanby Hall after ex-cyclone Gita tore the roof off the milking shed at the original venue outside Hawera.
‘‘With milking, it’s seconds that matter,’’ Wheeler said. ‘‘Saving one or two seconds a cow can make a big difference.’’
While technology had a part to play, people were key to making milking more efficient.
‘‘Technology that automates some of the milking tasks can increase efficiency but there are parts of the process that can be made more efficient by the people doing them.’’
Farmers using rotary platforms had traditionally aimed for less than 10 per cent of cows ‘going around’ and if more than 10 per cent required a second rotation, the platform speed would be reduced to give the cows longer to milk, he said.
However, ‘go around’ cows did not negatively affect the number of cows milked per hour and aiming for less than 10 per cent would often limit the platform throughput.
‘‘Don’t worry about letting cows ‘go around’, set the rotation as fast as you can comfortably cup,’’ Wheeler said.
‘‘Cupping speed will vary between milkers but really efficient cupping is sub four seconds.’’
In a 60 bail rotary, reducing platform rotation time from 10 minutes to eight increased the number of cows milked per hour from 340 to 370. However, the milker was only required to attach clusters one second faster.
In herringbone sheds, an efficient milking routine was especially important in large systems that required two milkers, Wheeler said.
‘‘The most efficient system is when the head gate can be released in the shortest time after clusters are attached.’’
An inefficient routine involved one milker beginning in the front half of the pit and the other at the back. This created problems because as cows were loading, only one milker could attach clusters while the second waited until the row was fully loaded.
Cows in the middle of the row were last to have their clusters attached, meaning they were likely to be last to finish, delaying the release of the head gate.
Wheeler suggested dividing the pit in half with one milker starting in front and the second from the middle which would mean the head gate could be released earlier.
The ‘‘bunny hopping’’ method, where one milker walked up the pit with the first batch of cows and attached clusters and the second followed suit, was another efficient routine.
Cows continued to load the last part of the row by themselves and the milkers continued cupping on their way down the row in batches of about 4-6 cows, depending on the position of teat sprayers.
‘‘This means the head gate can be released much earlier and you’re not left waiting for the row to exit,’’ Wheeler said.