The aim of this paper was to explore if, and in that case how, various preventive measures against mastitis influenced the whole-farm economic outcome, measured as technical efficiency, of a sample of specialised dairy farms in Sweden. In particular, the paper aimed at analysing whether a change to preventive measures applied by fully efficient farms would be a way for inefficient farms to beco...

Milk flow measurements on 124 cows were analyzed to deternfine how they are affected by vacuum level, pulsation rate, pulsation ratio of the milking maehine, and the breed, age, stage of laetation, and milk yield of the cow. Average rate of flow prior to machine stripping, yield during the first minute, and yield during the first 2 rain of milking were highly correlated with maxinmm rate of mil...

A best evidence topic in cardiac surgery was written according to a structured protocol. The question addressed was: in patients who have undergone cardiothoracic surgery does manipulation of drainage tubes affect drainage volumes or post-surgical outcome? Altogether 681 papers were found using the reported search, of which four represented the best evidence to answer the clinical question. Dun...

More than 80% of the milk stored in the udder, i.e. the alveolar fraction, only available after milk ejection is induced by the release of oxytocin and myoepithelial contraction. Milk ejection is induced by tactile teat stimulation, either manually or by the milking machine. The time from the start of a tactile stimulation until the occurrence of milk ejection spans from 40 s up to more than 2 ...

Eight Holstein cows were used to determine the relationship among milk urea nitrogen (MUN), plasma urea nitrogen (PUN), and feeding time. We first established that MUN concentrations were similar in concentration among quarters by comparing milk samples from each quarter just before milking. In order to determine if collecting a sample of milk from a quarter influenced the MUN in samples taken ...

In the dairy industry world wide, several hundred types of liners are used to milk dairy cows. The enormous amount of liner types with different characteristics in size, form, consistency and other design and manufacturing characteristics indicate that no ‘best’ liner has been identified in the last 60 or so years since machine milking has become the common method for milk harvesting. Mechanica...

Milking dairy cows four times daily (4×) instead of twice daily (2×) during early lactation stimulates an increase in milk yield that partly persists through late lactation; however, the mechanisms behind this response are unknown. We hypothesized that the acute mammary response to regular milkings would be transient and would involve different genes from those that may be specifically regulate...

The population of farms using automatic milking systems (AMS) has grown from the first installation a dairy farm in the Netherlands in 1992 to more than 8000 milking units on more than 2400 farms today The vast majority of these farms are in north-western Europe, with the Netherlands having the largest installed base and Scandinavia showing the fastest growth rate in the past few years (Lind, 2...

: Friesian-type dairy cows were milked with different machine settings to determine the effect of these settings on teat tissue reaction and on milking characteristics. Three teat-cup liner designs were used with varying upper barrel dimensions (wide-bore WB = 31.6 mm; narrow-bore NB = 21.0 mm; narrow-bore NB1 = 25.0 mm). These liners were tested with alternate and simultaneous pulsation patter...

The objective of this study was to assess the presence of a Listeria monocytogenes-containing biofilm in milking equipment as a potential source of bulk tank milk contamination on a dairy farm where milk contamination had been previously documented. Samples were collected from milking equipment and milking parlor premises on 4 occasions and analyzed for the presence of L. monocytogenes. Pulsed-...