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Milking cows done right is a pleasurable experience for both the cow and the milker.
The cows can be taught to calmly enter the parlor on their own, watching and sensing cues from the milker in the parlor and crowd gate behind them. A certain challenge of milking cows is to get the milkers all on the same page, following the same protocols for cow entry and milking procedure. Our goal is to make the milking process the same every day for the cows, regardless who is milking them.
Cows are creatures of habit. As far as milking is concerned at our farm, milking starts out in the barn when an employee brings a pen of cows to the parlor to be milked. The cows know its time to be milked. They know the “pusher” is simply opening the gates so they can go to the parlor, and they leave their stalls or the feed manger and go. (If the same employee goes to a pen, not at milking time, the cows are generally more cautious or concerned about why that person is in the pen with them.) We calmly bring the cows to the holding area and drop the crowd gate behind them.
Cow entry from the holding area into the parlor is the first potential obstacle we face milking cows. If there is anything different from “normal,” the cows notice and typically balk at entering. Different noises, smells, milker cues or an upset milker could all slow down entry into the parlor. If the milker is relaxed and follows procedure, the cows are relaxed and enter the parlor by themselves.
Proper handling of cows prior to and during milking is important to help ensure release of a milk letdown hormone, oxytocin, for maximum milk removal. Adequate stimulation during pre-milking udder preparation causes oxytocin release from a cow’s pituitary gland to her blood supply. Through the blood supply, oxytocin quickly reaches the udder and effects contraction of the muscles around the alveoli, literally causing the milk there to be squeezed from the alveoli into milk ducts of increasing size and ultimately into the teat cisterns to be removed by milking.
Loud noises, the presence of strangers and/or rough handling of cows can frighten them. Fright results in the release of adrenaline, and the net effect of that is the cancellation of the positive milk letdown action of oxytocin. Air entry through the teat cup during unit attachment can cause enough teat end pain to hinder the oxytocin effect through adrenalin release as well.
Our milking procedure is quite simple: dip, strip and dry, and then attach the milking unit. The units automatically remove themselves when the cow is finished milking. We dip teats again after the milking units come off.
We don’t use water to clean a cow’s udder. Teat dip is a liquid disinfectant formulated for rapid bacterial kill and teat skin conditioning. We dip each teat with it after we first strip a couple squirts of milk out of each teat. Stripping stimulates oxytocin release and allows us to check for mastitis in the milk. Drying the teats with an individual clean washcloth continues to stimulate oxytocin release and removes sand and teat dip from the teats.
Timing of milking unit attachment, in relation to the oxytocin surge, is critical to maximize the amount of milk harvested. We like to see the units go on the cows 60 to 90 seconds after the start of udder prep. We prep four cows at a time, attach units, post dip cows already milked, prep four more cows and so forth. Our milking employees learn a rhythm that achieves adequate oxytocin stimulation, clean teats, timely milking unit attachment and post dipping — all while releasing cows from the parlor and giving the cues for another line of cows to enter.
“Procedural drift” among members of our milking crew is arguably the most challenging management issue when milking a herd of cows. We need to continually reinforce the fundamentals of milking procedure and how all the steps fit together for maximum milk letdown, udder health and employee satisfaction. Adequate training, staff meetings, and sharing milk production and quality numbers with the crew encourage us all to continually work toward correct and consistent routine while milking.
Then the cows like to come to the parlor, the crew likes milking them, and the boss likes the effect of our total effort on the milk check.
Everybody’s happy.
Milking cows done right is a pleasurable experience for both the cow and the milker.
The cows can be taught to calmly enter the parlor on their own, watching and sensing cues from the milker in the parlor and crowd gate behind them. A certain challenge of milking cows is to get the milkers all on the same page, following the same protocols for cow entry and milking procedure. Our goal is to make the milking process the same every day for the cows, regardless who is milking them.
Cows are creatures of habit. As far as milking is concerned at our farm, milking starts out in the barn when an employee brings a pen of cows to the parlor to be milked. The cows know its time to be milked. They know the “pusher” is simply opening the gates so they can go to the parlor, and they leave their stalls or the feed manger and go. (If the same employee goes to a pen, not at milking time, the cows are generally more cautious or concerned about why that person is in the pen with them.) We calmly bring the cows to the holding area and drop the crowd gate behind them.
Cow entry from the holding area into the parlor is the first potential obstacle we face milking cows. If there is anything different from “normal,” the cows notice and typically balk at entering. Different noises, smells, milker cues or an upset milker could all slow down entry into the parlor. If the milker is relaxed and follows procedure, the cows are relaxed and enter the parlor by themselves.
Proper handling of cows prior to and during milking is important to help ensure release of a milk letdown hormone, oxytocin, for maximum milk removal. Adequate stimulation during pre-milking udder preparation causes oxytocin release from a cow’s pituitary gland to her blood supply. Through the blood supply, oxytocin quickly reaches the udder and effects contraction of the muscles around the alveoli, literally causing the milk there to be squeezed from the alveoli into milk ducts of increasing size and ultimately into the teat cisterns to be removed by milking.
Loud noises, the presence of strangers and/or rough handling of cows can frighten them. Fright results in the release of adrenaline, and the net effect of that is the cancellation of the positive milk letdown action of oxytocin. Air entry through the teat cup during unit attachment can cause enough teat end pain to hinder the oxytocin effect through adrenalin release as well.
Our milking procedure is quite simple: dip, strip and dry, and then attach the milking unit. The units automatically remove themselves when the cow is finished milking. We dip teats again after the milking units come off.
We don’t use water to clean a cow’s udder. Teat dip is a liquid disinfectant formulated for rapid bacterial kill and teat skin conditioning. We dip each teat with it after we first strip a couple squirts of milk out of each teat. Stripping stimulates oxytocin release and allows us to check for mastitis in the milk. Drying the teats with an individual clean washcloth continues to stimulate oxytocin release and removes sand and teat dip from the teats.
Timing of milking unit attachment, in relation to the oxytocin surge, is critical to maximize the amount of milk harvested. We like to see the units go on the cows 60 to 90 seconds after the start of udder prep. We prep four cows at a time, attach units, post dip cows already milked, prep four more cows and so forth. Our milking employees learn a rhythm that achieves adequate oxytocin stimulation, clean teats, timely milking unit attachment and post dipping — all while releasing cows from the parlor and giving the cues for another line of cows to enter.
“Procedural drift” among members of our milking crew is arguably the most challenging management issue when milking a herd of cows. We need to continually reinforce the fundamentals of milking procedure and how all the steps fit together for maximum milk letdown, udder health and employee satisfaction. Adequate training, staff meetings, and sharing milk production and quality numbers with the crew encourage us all to continually work toward correct and consistent routine while milking.
Then the cows like to come to the parlor, the crew likes milking them, and the boss likes the effect of our total effort on the milk check.
Everybody’s happy.
