EFFECTS OF INCREASING THE MILK FLOW SWITCH POINT WHEN USING ACR's ON MILKING AND MILK QUALITY

摘要

Automatic cluster removers (ACR's) were marketed in the seventies in order to avoid overmilking, well known as a major effect in intra mammary infections (IMI). At the very beginning, but still now for some models, end of milking operations were switch on when the milk flow rate coming from the udder reaches around 200g/min. Since this date, some authors and particularly Ipema et Hogewerf (2002), Clarke (2004), Magliaro et Kensinger (2005). Most results came to the conclusion that that the average milk flow increases or the individual milking time of each cow decreases without influence neither on milk quantity and composition nor on udder health of the animals. However these studies were carried out with a variable final delay.