HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Touchberry, R. W. Articles by Markos, H. G. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Touchberry, R. W. Articles by Markos, H. G.

Variations in the Time Required to Milk Cows¹

Department of Dairy Science, University of Illinois, Urbana 61801

ABSTRACT

Time required to milk and rate of milk flow are largely characteristics of individual cows, as differences among cows of the same breed account for 55.7 and 52.2% of the total variances of the two traits, respectively. An average of 5.19 minutes elapsed from attaching the last teat cup until all teat cups were removed; 2.18 kg of milk was removed in the first minute and 4.36 kg in the first two minutes, while the average for the maximum amount of milk removed in one minute was 2.59 kg. Maximum rate increased .202 ± .024 kg and time increased .270 ± .035 minutes for each increase of 1 kg in milk yield per milking. Time required to milk can be predicted from the first powers of yield of milk per milking and measures of rate of flow with a high degree of accuracy; the multiple correlations ranged from 0.86 to 0.90. Maximum rate of flow, yield in the first two minutes are all adequate measures of rate of flow. Milking time increased 0.51 minute for each increase of one kilogram in yield of milk per milking independent of maximum rate and decreased 1.22 minutes for each increase of one kilogram in maximum rate of flow independent of yield per milking.

¹ Data for this study came from the dairy cattle crossbreeding project, a cooperative effort between the Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station and the Dairy Cattle Research Branch, USDA. This is a contributing project to the North Central Regional Project NC-2, Improvement of Dairy Cattle Through Breeding.

² Present address: Dairy Department, California Polytechnic College, San Luis Obispo 93401.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				A. L. Magliaro and R. S. Kensinger Automatic Cluster Remover Setting Affects Milk Yield and Machine-On Time in Dairy Cows J Dairy Sci, January 1, 2005; 88(1): 148 - 153. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]