________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract Udder health considerably affects the economics of dairy farming. There are different reasons for poor udder health; one of them is the milking technique. In earlier studies it was shown that automatic milking systems (AMS) have advantages over conventional milking systems (CMS). Quarter individual milking...

Objective To investigate the safety of umbilical cord milking on both the mother and neonate among very preterm deliveries of less than 33 weeks of gestation. Methods Pregnant women who were expected to deliver at between 24 0/7 and 32 6/7 weeks of gestation were randomized to either the umbilical cord milking or immediate cord clamping group. Maternal and neonatal data associated with delive...

During the last several decades, new milking management systems have been introduced, of which development of automatic milking (AM) systems is a significant step forward. In Europe, AM has become an established management system and has shown to be much more than milking management. Factors such as milking, milk quality, feeding, cow traffic, grazing, and animal behavior are essential elements...

This study was carried out to determine the association between some milking factors and milk quality in dairy cows. While questionnaires collected from a total of 50 smallholder farms in Bafra and Samsun, number of milkers (NM), milking duration (MD), care frequency for milking machine (CMM) and age of milking machine (AMM) were used as milking parameters. Milk quality was measured by somatic ...

An on-farm experiment was performed to investigate the effects of two milking systems on teat condition. An auto-tandem milking parlor made by GEA(®) with a conventional milking cluster (CON) and a single tube milking system called MultiLactor(®) (MULTI) from Siliconform GmbH were tested. For both milking system, in total 73 animals were milked over a period of seven months. To assess the effec...

In their first 150 days of lactation, nine Ragusana jennets were investigated at the 'Istituto Sperimentale Zootecnico per la Sicilia' (ISZS) in Palermo, to study the effects of different milking typologies on milk production. The jennets were kept in a paddock and were fed hay ad libitum and concentrate (3.5 kg jennet/day). From post-foaling day 21, every 3 weeks individual milk amounts were r...

Release of oxytocin (OT) is essential for milk ejection in dairy cows (Lefcourt & Akers, 1983; Bruckmaier & Blum, 1998). During milk ejection, alveolar milk is shifted into the cistern, which causes an increase of intracisternal pressure (Bruckmaier et al. 1994). To initiate maximum milk ejection at the start of milking, increasing OT concentration beyond a threshold level is sufficient (Schams...

The aim of the study was to quantify the workload on the upper extremity for fundamental work tasks during machine milking. Eleven milkers working in a loose-housing system with a milking parlour participated in the study. Muscle activity for the biceps and the forearm flexors, as well as positions and movements of the wrists were simultaneously measured by electromyography and electrogoniometr...

robotic milking systems (rMS) offer an innovative approach to improve productivity on dairy farms. rMS will influence the future growth of farms, the nature of husbandry employed and the quality of life on family farms. For farms using hired labour and located near industrial centres, RMS may contribute to the reduction of wage costs. As this technology is very expensive, and little is known re...

In order to assess the welfare of cows milked in automatic milking systems (AMS), restlessness behaviour during milking (stepping, foot-lifting), heart rate (HR) and heart-rate variability (HRV) were investigated in cows milked in two different AMS models (AMS-1, AMS-2) and in auto-tandem milking parlours (ATM) on four commercial farms in each case. Stepping rates and proportions of milkings wi...