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Milk Quality on Danish Farms with Automatic Milking Systems

M. D. Rasmussen^*, M. Bjerring^*, P. Justesen and L. Jepsen

^* Dept. of Animal Health and Welfare, Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences, DK-8830 Tjele, Denmark
Veterinary and Milk Quality Department, Danish Dairy Board, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark

Corresponding author:
M. D. Rasmussen; e-mail:
MortenD.Rasmussen{at}agrsci.dk.

The bulk-milk quality of 98 Danish farms with automatic milking systems was analyzed from 1 yr before introduction of automatic milking until 1 yr after. Bulk-milk total bacterial count, spores of anaerobes, somatic cell count (SCC), and freezing point increased when automatic milking was introduced and the frequency of milk-quality failures almost doubled. Milk-quality failures were most frequent in the first 3 mo after the start of automatic milking. The increase in spores of anaerobes indicated that the increase in total bacterial count originated partly from contamination of milk from the teat surface and partly from lack of cleaning of the milking equipment or cooling of the milk. The increase in bulk-milk SCC indicated that milk from clinically infected cows and cows with high cell counts was not diverted to the same degree, milking automatically rather than milking conventionally. A self-monitoring program including survey of the bulk-milk quality was established to help farmers in the transition period going from conventional to automatic milking. The program was introduced on 84 farms. Farms on the self-monitoring program reduced bulk-milk cell count. Application of the program did not reduce the frequency of high total bacterial counts and freezing points of the bulk milk to the level of conventional milking. However, the program reduced the overall frequency of milk-quality failures.

Key Words: automatic milking • somatic cell count • total bacterial count • freezing point

Abbreviation key: SCC = somatic cell count, AMS = automatic milking system, TBC = total bacterial count

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