Automatic milking

Deliverable D17 and D18 available

The last two deliverables from WP7 "Optimal cleaning of equipment for automatic milking" are D17 and D18.

D17 reports the 'Frequency of system cleaning'. The effect on the bacteriological quality of the milk of two and three system cleanings per day was studied in field experiments in the Netherlands and Sweden. Milk quality was analysed for total bacterial count (TBC), coliform count (CC), psychrotrophic count (PC) and thermoduric count (TC). In both countries the difference for TBC was small but significant for the two different cleaning frequencies. In the Netherlands also a significant difference was obtained for the other groups of bacteria. It is suggested that the less frequent change of filters could attribute to the raise in CC. When AM-systems have a sanitary design, are optimised for cleaning and well maintained and controlled, a good milk quality can be achieved with two system cleanings per day. Defects in the construction and/or procedures however will have a larger effect on milk quality.

D18 concerns 'Effectiveness of optimised teat cup cleaning in the prevention of mastitis pathogens transfer'. The removal of a mastitis pathogen (Streptococcus agalactiae) by flushing teat cup liners with water and with a disinfectant is compared with no flushing. The log reduction in number of Str.ag. was 1,80 and 2,26 for respectively cold water and the disinfectant. The extra log reduction with a disinfectant was small and did not compensate for the negative effects of using disinfectants in a milking system. 46 Cows were challenged with Str.ag. by milking with contaminated liners. Two liners were flushed after contamination, the other two liners were not flushed. The udder health of the cows was measured during one week after the challenge. In none of the foremilk samples Streptococcus agalactiae could be recovered and none of quarters showed signs of an inflammation. The effect of a cluster flush on the rate of new infections could not be established in this experiment.

Message date: May 28, 2004

Deliverable D27 is out

D27 is the third and final deliverable from work package 10 'Automatic milking and grazing'. It is the 'Report with grazing strategies and their effect on animal welfare and system performance'.
Recent research on how to combine automatic milking (AM) systems and grazing is presented with the objective to summarise the results obtained in an EU-project and discuss these results in relation to present knowledge in the field. Experiments, conducted in Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark, are reported. In conclusion automatic milking can successfully be combined with pasture and grazing. High levels of supplementary feeding did not lead to higher production when pasture was available in sufficient amounts but supplementation can be used strategically as a management tool to obtain smooth cow traffic.

Message date: May 7, 2004

Deliverable D10 is out

D10 is the third and last deliverable from work package 4 'Milk quality on farms with an automatic milking system' and is entitled 'Report with results of detail studies on causes of decreased milk quality'.
The aim of this study was to investigate the factors contributing to elevated FFA levels with automatic milking: influence of the milking frequency, technical parameters of the automatic milking system, and finally, farm management aspects.
Milking frequencies are of more importance than technical parameters of the AM system, because FFA levels for farms milking three times per day and AM systems are more or less comparable. However, technical aspects cannot be excluded. Compared to conventional milking, the air/milk ratio is higher, probably resulting in more disruption of milk fat globule membranes. Technical factors were studied in a laboratory study using milking machine components of two AM-systems and of a conventional system. Apart from milking frequencies and technical parameters, management aspects probably play a role. Therefore two studies on various numbers of farms were performed. Although several FFA problems were solved by adjusting milking frequencies and technical adjustments, in some situations high FFA levels remained. Other farm management aspects, like feeding regime, breeding and animal health are still subject of ongoing research.

Message date: May 6, 2004

Deliverable D7 is out

D7 is the final deliverable from work package 3 'Redefinition of acceptable milk quality'. It is the 'Report on the possibilities of automatic milking systems to separate milk based on quality'.
In this deliverable the definition of abnormal milk (proposed in deliverable D6) is used to test the ability of different AMS models to detect and hence divert abnormal milk at time of milking. The current AMS models have systems to produce alarm lists of cows that should be checked for abnormalities of their milk, but these systems are not intended for automatic diversion of milk at present. This should be taken into account when evaluating the current systems. At present, the sensitivities and specificities are generally too low for automatic diversion of abnormal milk, and it seems that most of the models could benefit from application of more sophisticated algorithms. Furthermore recommendations are given on the methods of sampling and calculating specificity and sensitivity.

Message date: May 5, 2004

Deliverable (D05) available

D5 is the second report resulting from the work carried out within work package 2 and is entitled 'Report on social acceptance of automatic milking'.
This report presents the results of a descriptive content analysis of 14 newspapers from six countries on the ways in which the press deals with agriculture, food, and the food industry. In addition, in-depth interviews with journalists, opinion leaders from pressure and interest groups, and other relevant actors were conducted in each of the six countries. Finally focus group interviews with consumers were held to identify which issues are currently particularly sensitive in public opinion. The results show that, in the period studied, automatic milking was virtually absent from the newspapers studied.

Message date: May 4, 2004

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