How many cows can one person milk?
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The milking process should be recognised as the most important operation on the dairy farm.
From a labour perspective, it is the most significant task of the day, accounting for approximately 33% of total labour demand, irrespective of herd size.
While all farmers aspire to an efficient milking process, the outcome will be a function of people, cows and capital investment, and these must interact correctly to give optimum performance.
Milking parlours are run most efficiently when the capacity of the milking equipment matches the capacity of the labour person(s) milking the cows.
The milking operator should not be waiting for the milking equipment (clusters, for example) to become available, and the equipment should be fully utilised, not idle and waiting for the operator to catch up.
Thus, efficiency is maximised when the equipment and labour are balanced.
Three important factors in this equation are:
- the work routine of the person;
- the number of milking units, whether automatic cluster removers (ACRs) are used or not (to prevent over-milking);
- the stage of lactation (because it influences individual cow milking time).
A further important factor is the length of time the operator may wish to spend in the milking parlour, or how long the operator can remain efficient at the milking task, which is generally considered to be not longer than two hours.
In order to add clarity to this issue, a research study at Moorepark investigated the effect of milking cluster number, pre-milking routine and stage of lactation on milking row time, over-milking, and operator idle time, in a side-by-side parlour.
As cluster number increased, row time and duration of over-milking were increased, and idle time was reduced.
The type of routine practiced largely dictates the number of clusters one operator can handle.
In a one-person milking process, when a minimal pre-milking routine is applied, and without ACRs, 22 milking clusters may be operated without experiencing over-milking of longer than about two minutes, resulting in milking times of about two hours and 1.6 hours, respectively, in early and late lactation, for a herd of 220 cows (10 rows, 12 minutes milking row time).
The presence of ACRs would allow a cluster number of up to 26 to be managed, due to the ACRs’ effect in eliminating over-milking in late lactation, thus enabling a 260-cow-herd to be milked in two hours and 1.8 hours, respectively, in early and late lactation.
Alternatively, when a full pre-milking routine is applied, milking cluster numbers of 14 (early lactation) or less (late lactation) may be operated without experiencing over-milking of longer than two minutes, without ACRs.
However, ACRs would prevent over-milking with increased milking units.
Additional units (more than 14) would allow greater cow numbers to be milked within a specified time of, for example, two hours, but row time would increase (for example, to 16 and 19 minutes, with 22 and 26 units, respectively).
Informed decisions and choices need to be made with regard to desired milking performance, since actual performance will be influenced by a number of inter-dependent variables, such as herd size, preferred pre-milking routine, preferred milking time and available investment capital.
Milking parlours are run most efficiently when the capacity of the milking equipment matches the capacity of the labour person(s) milking the cows.
The milking operator should not be waiting for the milking equipment (clusters, for example) to become available and the equipment should be fully utilised, not idle and waiting for the operator to catch up.
